2026 Commonwealth Games: India’s hopes of a raft of medals at the 2026 Commonwealth Games have been severely affected as key sports such as hockey, badminton, wrestling, cricket and shooting have been left out of the event. Host city Glasgow recently unveiled a revised list of 10 projects aimed at cutting costs and making the event more budget-friendly. The reshuffle excludes many sports in which India has traditionally excelled.
In addition, table tennis, squash and triathlon have also been excluded, with the entire event taking place on only four venues. The number of events will also be reduced by nine compared to the 2022 Birmingham event.
The Commonwealth Games will return to Glasgow from July 23 to August 2, marking their return to the Scottish city after 12 years. Sports will include athletics and para-athletics (athletics), swimming and para-swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, track and para-track cycling, basketball, weightlifting and para-weightlifting, boxing, judo, bowling and para-bowling and 3×3 Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) data, basketball and 3×3 wheelchair basketball.
The Games will be held at four venues: Scotstoun Stadium, Tollcross International Aquatics Centre, Emirates Stadium (home of the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome) and the Scottish Events Campus (SEC). Athletes and support staff will stay at nearby hotels.
India’s medal prospects have been hit by the reduced list as much of the country’s past success has come in sports that have been omitted. Shooting, in particular, is expected to remain absent from Birmingham 2022, largely due to logistical challenges.
The CGF highlighted that “Glasgow will have 10 sports in 2026, clustered across four venues within an eight-mile corridor”, effectively ruling out the possibility of shooting as Dundee’s Barry Barden Center is more than 100 miles from Glasgow kilometer. Archery, which last appeared at the Delhi Olympics in 2010, was also excluded from the event.
Major venues such as Glasgow Green and the Scottish Exhibition and Convention Center, which hosted hockey and wrestling events during the 2014 Commonwealth Games, have been excluded this time. The Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, which has previously hosted badminton events, will now be used only to host the next cycling event.
Hockey’s exclusion from the Olympics may be partly due to scheduling conflicts, as the Hockey World Cup is scheduled to be held in Belgium and the Netherlands from August 15-30, 2026. Originally, Victoria, Australia, was supposed to host the Games but withdrew due to rising costs, paving the way for Scotland to take over.
India has achieved great success in several sports that are not participating in the 2026 Olympics. The men’s and women’s hockey teams have won multiple medals, with the women’s hockey team winning a historic gold medal in 2002. 135 medals (63 gold medals). Wrestling, another excluded sport, won India 114 medals, including 49 golds, at the last Commonwealth Games.
India’s medal prospects in Glasgow have been severely hampered by the exclusion of many such events. The absence of these key events has raised questions about the country’s medal tally at the upcoming Commonwealth Games.
