Mirabai Chanu leads four-woman Indian weightlifting team at Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games
Mirabai Chanu leads India’s four-woman weightlifting squad at the 2026 Asian Games, which run from September 22 to 28 at the Tokai Citizens Gymnasium in Aichi-Nagoya, as the team seeks to end a 28-year absence from the Asiad podium.
The Indian unit arrives off a strong Commonwealth Games showing in Glasgow a month earlier, returning with eight medals including Chanu’s third consecutive Commonwealth Games gold. India have won 14 weightlifting medals at the Asian Games since the sport’s introduction in 1951 — five silver and nine bronze — but have never taken gold, and no Indian lifter has stood on an Asiad weightlifting podium since Karnam Malleswari’s silver in Bangkok in 1998.
The delegation comprises Mirabai Chanu (women’s 49kg), Gyaneshwari Yadav (53kg), Seram Nirupama Devi (61kg) and Harjinder Kaur (69kg). Three of the four arrived in Aichi-Nagoya as Commonwealth Games medallists: Chanu with gold and both Yadav and Harjinder with silver.
Chanu’s multi-event résumé in the source includes an Olympic silver, a world title and three successive Commonwealth Games golds, yet an Asian Games medal remains absent from her record. Her previous Asiad results include ninth in 2014, a missed 2018 edition because of a back injury, and a fourth-place finish at the 2023 Hangzhou Games after collapsing during a 117kg clean and jerk while carrying a thigh injury, finishing 8kg short of bronze.
Competition procedures and category changes for the Games are noted in the source: the 2026 Asian Games will use the new IWF weight categories introduced on August 1, 2026, with five men’s and five women’s classes and one athlete per National Olympic Committee in each category. Lifters receive three attempts in the snatch and three in the clean and jerk; the best valid lift in each discipline counts toward the combined total, a failed series in either discipline produces no total, and only individual medals are awarded.
The Asian field is described in the source as deep, with nations such as China, North Korea, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan among the traditional powers; the Indian team’s Commonwealth Games form is acknowledged but the article stresses the tougher level of competition at the Asiad. India’s originally selected men’s entrant, Rishikanta Singh Chanambam, withdrew because of a knee injury after winning Commonwealth Games silver in the men’s 60kg category while carrying that injury; he was advised against risking further damage following Glasgow.
Two of India’s four lifters will compete on the opening day: Mirabai Chanu and Gyaneshwari Yadav are scheduled to take the platform on September 23, with the weightlifting programme running through to September 28 at Tokai Citizens Gymnasium in Aichi-Nagoya.