Punjab, Oct. 18 -- The 2026 Asian Para Games opened at Aichi-Nagoya on Sunday, running to 24 October - the same host cities that staged the Asian Games three weeks ago, where India finished fourth with 85 medals and 21 golds.
The benchmark India is chasing
At the 2022 edition India took a record 111 medals, including 29 golds, and finished fifth. That was a transformation: at the 2014 Games the tally was 33, and in 2018 India finished ninth with 15 golds.
The reason is not mysterious. Para sport in India went from being funded as welfare to being funded as sport - with the same training centres, the same foreign coaches and the same TOPS scheme money that the Olympic programme uses. Para athletes now appear in the same funding lists as a...