Asian Games 2026: Sports Ministry says over Rs 700 crore spent on Indian athletes’ preparation for Aichi-Nagoya

The Asian Games will begin on September 19 and will run till October 4. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

More than Rs. 702 crore has been spent on equipment, training, hiring coaches and more to prepare athletes for Asian Games 2026, the Sports Ministry said on Tuesday.

The competition will begin on September 19 in Japan, where India’s contingent will feature 310 event debutants. India will field 501 athletes (267 male and 234 female) and 265 support staff in 36 disciplines at the Asian Games.

N S Johal, the CEO of the Ministry’s Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), said the Indian athletes have had the resources to match or even better the best-ever haul of 106 medals (28 gold, 38 silver and 40 bronze) achieved in the previous Hangzhou edition.

“There is good momentum across disciplines, and the contingent features a lot of debutants, which is as TOPS CEO, a very proud thing for me. The gestation period in sport is long, and when young athletes are able to enter the top level early, it is a very good sign for the future,” Johal said in a media interaction in New Delhi.

“Since January this year, we have had nine coordination meetings of the Target Asian Games Group, and the whole effort has been to provide athletes with the best possible environment despite the administrative challenges posed by issues in various federations,” Johal noted.

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Rs 702.86 crore has been spent as part of the Annual Competition and Training Calendar, while an additional Rs 97.84 crore has gone into the preparations from the TOPS fund. Rs 251.4 crore has gone into providing international competition exposure, followed by domestic training that has cost Rs 118.3 crore.

Johal noted that TOPS ensured that physios, mental health experts, along with doctors, were well-represented in the contingent. “Every team has women’s support staff. One third of the authorised support staff is from sports sciences. These are the little things we have worked on to ensure balance in the contingents,” he said.

“It took us a while to come out with the contingent list because some federations had not named enough women support staff,” he added.