When a nation spends more than ₹53 crore preparing its athletes for a sporting event that has been significantly reduced in scale, the obvious question is whether the investment is justified.
At first glance, the numbers may seem disproportionate. The 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will feature just ten sports, the smallest programme in decades. Traditional Indian powerhouses such as badminton, wrestling, shooting, hockey, cricket and table tennis have all been dropped as organisers sought to reduce operational costs. That automatically shrinks India’s medal opportunities and makes comparisons with previous editions almost meaningless.
Yet, judging India’s investment solely through the lens of medal count would miss the bigger picture.
The ₹53 crore allocated by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is not merely an expenditure for ten days of competition. It is part of a much larger strategy that reflects how Indian sport has evolved over the past decade. Today, the Commonwealth Games are no longer viewed as the destination. They are a checkpoint on the road to the – Olympic Games.
According to the Sports Ministry, more than ₹53 crore has been spent on preparing Indian athletes for Glasgow, with athletics, boxing and weightlifting receiving the largest share of funding. The investment has covered international exposure, overseas training camps, sports science support, physiotherapy, nutrition, recovery programmes and world-class coaching. These are no longer luxuries for elite athletes. They have become necessities in modern high-performance sport for their respective countries.
Investing in Performance, Not Just Participation
The biggest share of funding has gone towards athletics, India’s fastest-growing Olympic sport. Indian athletes have trained at internationally recognised centres including the High Altitude Training Centre in Colorado Springs in the United States, while several others underwent specialised camps in Switzerland, Turkey and South Africa to prepare for European weather and competition conditions.
Weightlifters, led by Olympic silver medallist Mirabai Chanu, have been training in Birmingham weeks before the Games to adapt to local conditions. Meanwhile, boxing, another of India’s traditional strengths, has received more than ₹10 crore in support for its 14-member squad led by Olympic bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain.
Explaining the rationale behind overseas preparation, Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, “We have ensured that all our medal prospects are based in Europe before the Games so that there is no problem in adapting to local conditions and time zones at the time of the Games.”
That statement perhaps best illustrates India’s changing sporting philosophy. Success is no longer expected to come through talent alone. It is being engineered through meticulous planning, scientific preparation and sustained financial backing.
The Commonwealth Games Have Changed
The Glasgow Games themselves are unlike any previous edition. After the Australian state of Victoria withdrew from hosting due to rising costs, Glasgow stepped in to organise a scaled-down version of the event. Only ten sports remain on the programme, compared to nineteen at Birmingham 2022. The absence of badminton, wrestling, shooting and cricket removes several disciplines that traditionally contributed a substantial share of India’s medals.
At Birmingham, India finished fourth on the medal table with 61 medals, including 22 gold medals. Replicating that tally in Glasgow will be almost impossible, not because India’s athletes have become weaker, but because there are simply fewer events to compete in. This makes evaluating India’s campaign solely through medal numbers both unfair and outdated.
Instead, attention should shift towards the quality of performances, consistency against world-class competition and the emergence of athletes capable of challenging at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
India’s sporting ecosystem has undergone a remarkable transformation since the launch of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) in 2014. The programme has funded athletes through international competitions, sports science, biomechanics, mental conditioning, recovery and personalised coaching. Several Olympic medallists, including Neeraj Chopra and Mirabai Chanu, have benefitted from this ecosystem.
The Commonwealth Games fit naturally into that larger vision. Target Olympic Podium Scheme CEO NS Johal, who also heads the government’s Mission Olympic Cell, expressed confidence in the team’s preparations, saying, “We will do better than last time in disciplines that are there on the roster.” The emphasis is telling. Officials are not promising a larger overall medal tally because the opportunities simply do not exist. Instead, they are targeting improved performances in the events that remain. That represents a mature way of measuring sporting success.
Is ₹53 Crore Worth It?
For many taxpayers, ₹53 crore is a substantial figure. Questions about accountability and returns are entirely valid.
However, when viewed against the backdrop of India’s overall sports budget, which has steadily increased in recent years with greater allocations towards athlete welfare, infrastructure and Olympic preparation, the expenditure represents an investment rather than a cost. Elite sport today is driven by marginal gains. Better recovery facilities, nutritionists, psychologists, altitude training and international exposure often determine whether an athlete finishes first or fifth.
Countries such as Australia, Great Britain and Canada have embraced this model for decades. India is now following the same blueprint. If overseas preparation enables an athlete to improve by even a fraction of a second on the track or a few centimetres in the field, the impact can extend far beyond the Commonwealth Games.
Ultimately, Glasgow 2026 should not be viewed as the final report card on India’s sporting investment. The Games will offer an important assessment of how effectively India’s high-performance system is developing athletes capable of competing consistently against international opposition. More importantly, it will provide valuable experience ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where India’s ambitions are significantly higher.
In modern sport, medals are often the visible outcome. The real victory lies in building a system capable of producing champions long before they step onto the podium.
