SportsPara sport
Modi tells record Asian Para Games team they 'filled the entire nation with immense pride'
Meeting the para-athletes who won 114 medals in Japan, the Prime Minister said India was emerging as a big power in the world of sports.
Key points
- Narendra Modi met the Asian Para Games contingent in New Delhi on Thursday.
- He said the rise from 14 medals in 2010 to 114 medals this year reflects effort and better support.
- Modi singled out javelin thrower Rinku's tribute to his late mother.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday told India’s Asian Para Games contingent that they had “filled the entire nation with immense pride”, as he met the para-athletes who brought home a record 114 medals from Aichi-Nagoya.
The meeting was held at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi on November 5, 2026. Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Raksha Khadse joined the Prime Minister.
Modi said he had been “eagerly waiting to meet” the athletes and that their results showed India was “emerging as a big power in the world of sports.” He linked the leap from 14 medals at the 2010 Games to 114 this year to the athletes’ own effort and to a stronger support system, and recalled that before 2014 many parents were wary of sending children into sport because resources, support and transparency were lacking.
He also spoke of javelin thrower Rinku, who lifted a photograph of his mother after winning gold. She had died two months before the Games. Modi said the moment “moved every citizen of the country to tears.”
A record haul
India won 30 gold, 35 silver and 49 bronze in Japan, ahead of the 108 medals from Hangzhou, a tally cut from 111 after three medals were stripped over doping cases. The 168-strong squad was far smaller than the 309 sent to Hangzhou, yet it set five world records and nine Asian records and swept the podium in four events.
Women played a big part: 34 of India’s 56 women athletes came home with medals. India won nine golds on the final day alone.
The meeting followed a similar event on October 15, when Modi hosted the Asian Games medallists in the capital.