India vie for inclusion of kabaddi, archery, and wrestling in Commonwealth Games
At the CGF's Asia and Oceania regional meeting, IOA argued that archery, wrestling, and kabaddi should be included in the roster of official sports for the CWG. While kabaddi has never been a part, Indian competitors have excelled in shooting and archery in prior editions until both were eliminated.
The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) President Dame Louise Martin and her team met with the Indian delegation, which was led by IOA President PT Usha, along with its acting CEO and joint secretary Kalyan Chaubey and executive council member Lt Gen Harpal Singh, to talk about and deliberate over topics for the development of Indian sports in relation to the strategic plan being proposed by CGF.
"I welcome the steps taken on return of shooting in the 2026 Victoria Commonwealth Games. At the same time, we have sought the intervention of the CGF leadership to make Archery, Wrestling, and Kabaddi as part of the Games competition roster in future," Usha was quoted as saying in a media release.
The Commonwealth Games and CGF Australia previously released the complete sports schedule for the Victoria 2026 CWG, which included 26 categories and 20 sports, including nine fully integrated parasports.
At the 2026 CWG Games, shooting will be reinstated after being controversially removed from the Birmingham edition in 2022. With 135 medals (63 gold, 44 silver, and 28 bronze) won so far at the Commonwealth Games, shooting has been India's most successful sport.
With 114 medals (49 gold, 39 silver, and 26 bronze), wrestling is in third place. At the Birmingham Games, it produced the most medals: 12 (6 gold, 1 silver, and 5 bronze). The sport, which has been in four consecutive Games since 2010, has been removed from the 2026 edition.
India is second in the all-time medal total for the sport of archery, which has only been in the CWG twice, in the years 1982 and 2010.
"Shooting has been India's strongest sport and its return in 2026 CWG is a welcome development for India. I'm sure that the inclusion of para-shooting will also add to India's medal tally," Chaubey said.
"I believe we have made a strong case for India to have wrestling and archery back at CWG. The wrestling results at Birmingham Games is a testimony of India’s dominance in the sport with an all-time second best to Canada since the history of the Games."
(With PTI inputs)
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