Asian Games 2026: State-by-state breakdown of India’s 503 athletes

India have sent 503 athletes to the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, which run from September 19 to October 4. The Games feature athletes from 45 countries and regions competing across 43 sports.

The Indian delegation includes Olympic medallists PV Sindhu, Manu Bhaker, Lovlina Borgohain, Aman Sehrawat and Mirabai Chanu, and fields men’s and women’s cricket teams led by Shreyas Iyer and Harmanpreet Kaur; both teams won gold last time and want to reclaim it. The youngest member of the squad is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (15) and the oldest is horse rider Shruti Vora (55). India staged the inaugural Asian Games in New Delhi in 1951; the country won 70 medals in 2018 and a record 107 medals at Hangzhou in 2022 (28 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze), when it sent 661 athletes.

Haryana supplies the largest contingent with 96 athletes — 46 men and 50 women — and accounts for roughly one in every five Indian competitors. Maharashtra is second with 49 athletes, followed by Tamil Nadu (37), Punjab (35) and Manipur (34); those five states together send 251 athletes, about half of the entire team.

Manipur is described as the biggest surprise, sending more athletes than Uttar Pradesh (32) and Delhi (30). No other North-East state comes close: Assam has three athletes, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland have two each, and Tripura has one.

The article reports that of the 503 athletes, 234 are women, approximately 46% of the contingent. It also lists the squad as including 267 men and 232 women across 36 sports. At state level, Himachal Pradesh has seven women and one man, while Madhya Pradesh has 15 women and nine men.

By sport, athletics supplies the largest group with 74 athletes; field hockey has 40 participants; cricket and shooting have 30 apiece; and kabaddi accounts for 24 athletes.

India’s official contingent is 503 athletes, subject to change, who will compete across the Asian Games running from September 19 to October 4 in Aichi-Nagoya.