General Sports News

[Indian Sports fan 8]

The qualification guidelines for various sports are released by IOC for 2028 LA Olympics.

 

Check out the qualification guidelines for Badminton, Hockey, Shooting etc. here - 

 

https://thesportsgram.in/category/road-to-la-2028/

[Prashanth 185]

On 4/11/2025 at 11:52 AM, Siddhartha Talukdar said:

So here's my reaction to Qualification to 2028. If we plan correctly, we can have a large contingent. 
 

AQUATICS:

Swimming: Universality quota ki jai!!

Diving: Nope

Water Polo: Do we even play this?

Athletes = 2

 

ARCHERY:  Even though Compound event is added the number of quotas has not increased, so its expected quotas for individual Recurve to reduce. So its imperative we qualify via team which think we can for both sexes. In Compound Mixed Team, we should qualify. 
Athletes = 8

ATHLETICS: Nothing really changed, just mixed race relay replaced by 4x100m mixed relay; so similar qualification
Athletes = 25

 

BADMINTON: A sport where slowly we hitting a gradual decline despite being a core sport for us.
Men's Singles: Lakshya Sen should qualify but the second shuttler is doubtful. Haven't seen any improvement from Kiran George or Rajawat so far
Women's Singles: 1 shuttler. Need to look out for teenagers Anmol Kharb and Unnati Hooda
Men's Doubles: Only Satwik-Chirag pair

Women's Doubles: Treesa-Gayatri will hopefully maintain top 20 in 3 years

Mixed Doubles: One of Kapila / Crasto and Sathish / Aadya to qualify

Athletes = 8

 

BASKETBALL: In 5x5, men are 76th and women are 79th. In 3x3, the men's team had a memorable recent Asia Cup; hope it wasn't a fluke. Even with increased quotas from 8 to 12, not expected to qualify

Athletes = 0 

 

BOXING: Even with lot of issues with the sport, there is no quota change and 1 event increase in women. Expecting similar quotas as of 2024

Athletes = 8

 

BASEBALL/CANOE / FLAG FOOTBALL / HANDBALL / LACROSSE / MODERN PENTATHLON / RUGBY / SKATEBOARDING / SPORT CLIMBING / SURFING /TAEKWONDO / TRIATHLON / VOLLEYBALL:  No chance. Don't care Athletes = 0

 

CYCLING:  Make or break for Track Cycling. We have former junior champions who expected to be in their prime by 2028 and first foreign coach. 

Athletes = 0

 

CRICKET: Whatever the qualification system be, by some abracadabra both our teams will qualify

Athletes = 30

 

EQUESTRIAN: Easiest sport to qualify. Just turn up in team qualification event and try to maintain MER for next 2 years. If we can win team medals in Asian Games then we can certainly qualify for Olympics too

Athletes = 6

 

FENCING: Hope young epee fencer Taniksha Khatri becomes serious for the sport; she hasn't participated at all this season. Bhavani Devi is somehow maintaining her 40s rank and she could look at realistic qualification again. 

Athletes = 0

 

FOOTBALL: We can't even beat Bangladesh. Kalyan Chaubey had promised very lofty goals. Can't believe we hired a coach who is still ISL coach who will ensure national team is full of FC Goa players

Athletes = 0

 

GOLF: Two per gender which also ensures quota in Mixed Team

Athletes = 4

 

GYMNASTICS: Not aware of any upcoming junior gymnasts and current crop is too old

Athletes = 0

 

HOCKEY: Men's team is miles ahead in Asia so should win Asian Games. China women's team has shown significant improvement and Japan being host, it will be tough for the women to qualify via Asian Games but they should qualify via qualification tournament

Athletes = 30

 

JUDO:   We should qualify 1 judoka but there's potential for more. If we invest in Asmita Dey (48 kg), Shraddha Chopade (52 kg) and Himanshi Tokas (63 kg) who still young, we can get automatic qualifier

Athletes = 1

 

ROWING:  We should qualify in Single Sculls. Need to see on qualification criteria which of the events have continental qualification as Lightweight Double Sculls is not part of the programme now

Athletes = 1

 

SAILING: Vishnu Saravanan and Nethra Kumanan to qualify again

Athletes = 2

 

SHOOTING: Probably among our best managed sports. Medals at 2024 Olympics was a big boost and players, coaches and federation should feel confident about 2028

Athletes = 22

 

SQUASH: Very limited quotas of just 16 per gender. By my guess, qualification shall be via rankings where 2 per NOC if in top 8 otherwise 1. Our highest ranked male is Ramit Tandon (31st) and within top 16 with my qualification scenario. The highest ranked female is Anahat Singh who is 62nd but she is still a teen and we can expect her to be within top 30 in 3 years

Athletes = 2

 

TABLE TENNIS: Should qualify 2 singles players per gender. Not sure how doubles qualification will work but we can qualify 2 pairs per gender and also qualify in Mixed Team. 

Athletes = 6

 

TENNIS: Only Sumit Nagal

Athletes = 1

 

WEIGHTLIFTING: A sport which has given us medals but no realistic weightlifter in horizon who can even qualify in 2028. Still fingers crossed

Athletes = 1

 

WRESTLING: Hope all the issues are cleared by 2028. Even with little preparation our wrestlers were decent in Asian Championships

Athletes = 7

 

Total: Athletes = 164

Overall Opinion: I think this could be a memorable Olympics especially with inclusion of Cricket and if we plan well. It could be even even better if India is declared the host for 2036!

 

 

Can add Ayush if he improves for second quota in badminton.

[nitinsanker 208]

On 4/11/2025 at 2:22 PM, Siddhartha Talukdar said:

So here's my reaction to Qualification to 2028. If we plan correctly, we can have a large contingent. 
 

AQUATICS:

Swimming: Universality quota ki jai!!

Diving: Nope

Water Polo: Do we even play this?

Athletes = 2

 

ARCHERY:  Even though Compound event is added the number of quotas has not increased, so its expected quotas for individual Recurve to reduce. So its imperative we qualify via team which think we can for both sexes. In Compound Mixed Team, we should qualify. 
Athletes = 8

ATHLETICS: Nothing really changed, just mixed race relay replaced by 4x100m mixed relay; so similar qualification
Athletes = 25

 

BADMINTON: A sport where slowly we hitting a gradual decline despite being a core sport for us.
Men's Singles: Lakshya Sen should qualify but the second shuttler is doubtful. Haven't seen any improvement from Kiran George or Rajawat so far
Women's Singles: 1 shuttler. Need to look out for teenagers Anmol Kharb and Unnati Hooda
Men's Doubles: Only Satwik-Chirag pair

Women's Doubles: Treesa-Gayatri will hopefully maintain top 20 in 3 years

Mixed Doubles: One of Kapila / Crasto and Sathish / Aadya to qualify

Athletes = 8

 

BASKETBALL: In 5x5, men are 76th and women are 79th. In 3x3, the men's team had a memorable recent Asia Cup; hope it wasn't a fluke. Even with increased quotas from 8 to 12, not expected to qualify

Athletes = 0 

 

BOXING: Even with lot of issues with the sport, there is no quota change and 1 event increase in women. Expecting similar quotas as of 2024

Athletes = 8

 

BASEBALL/CANOE / FLAG FOOTBALL / HANDBALL / LACROSSE / MODERN PENTATHLON / RUGBY / SKATEBOARDING / SPORT CLIMBING / SURFING /TAEKWONDO / TRIATHLON / VOLLEYBALL:  No chance. Don't care Athletes = 0

 

CYCLING:  Make or break for Track Cycling. We have former junior champions who expected to be in their prime by 2028 and first foreign coach. 

Athletes = 0

 

CRICKET: Whatever the qualification system be, by some abracadabra both our teams will qualify

Athletes = 30

 

EQUESTRIAN: Easiest sport to qualify. Just turn up in team qualification event and try to maintain MER for next 2 years. If we can win team medals in Asian Games then we can certainly qualify for Olympics too

Athletes = 6

 

FENCING: Hope young epee fencer Taniksha Khatri becomes serious for the sport; she hasn't participated at all this season. Bhavani Devi is somehow maintaining her 40s rank and she could look at realistic qualification again. 

Athletes = 0

 

FOOTBALL: We can't even beat Bangladesh. Kalyan Chaubey had promised very lofty goals. Can't believe we hired a coach who is still ISL coach who will ensure national team is full of FC Goa players

Athletes = 0

 

GOLF: Two per gender which also ensures quota in Mixed Team

Athletes = 4

 

GYMNASTICS: Not aware of any upcoming junior gymnasts and current crop is too old

Athletes = 0

 

HOCKEY: Men's team is miles ahead in Asia so should win Asian Games. China women's team has shown significant improvement and Japan being host, it will be tough for the women to qualify via Asian Games but they should qualify via qualification tournament

Athletes = 30

 

JUDO:   We should qualify 1 judoka but there's potential for more. If we invest in Asmita Dey (48 kg), Shraddha Chopade (52 kg) and Himanshi Tokas (63 kg) who still young, we can get automatic qualifier

Athletes = 1

 

ROWING:  We should qualify in Single Sculls. Need to see on qualification criteria which of the events have continental qualification as Lightweight Double Sculls is not part of the programme now

Athletes = 1

 

SAILING: Vishnu Saravanan and Nethra Kumanan to qualify again

Athletes = 2

 

SHOOTING: Probably among our best managed sports. Medals at 2024 Olympics was a big boost and players, coaches and federation should feel confident about 2028

Athletes = 22

 

SQUASH: Very limited quotas of just 16 per gender. By my guess, qualification shall be via rankings where 2 per NOC if in top 8 otherwise 1. Our highest ranked male is Ramit Tandon (31st) and within top 16 with my qualification scenario. The highest ranked female is Anahat Singh who is 62nd but she is still a teen and we can expect her to be within top 30 in 3 years

Athletes = 2

 

TABLE TENNIS: Should qualify 2 singles players per gender. Not sure how doubles qualification will work but we can qualify 2 pairs per gender and also qualify in Mixed Team. 

Athletes = 6

 

TENNIS: Only Sumit Nagal

Athletes = 1

 

WEIGHTLIFTING: A sport which has given us medals but no realistic weightlifter in horizon who can even qualify in 2028. Still fingers crossed

Athletes = 1

 

WRESTLING: Hope all the issues are cleared by 2028. Even with little preparation our wrestlers were decent in Asian Championships

Athletes = 7

 

Total: Athletes = 164

Overall Opinion: I think this could be a memorable Olympics especially with inclusion of Cricket and if we plan well. It could be even even better if India is declared the host for 2036!

 

 

I feel you have been bang on with your predictions ..... The only one i would say is maybe 2 in judo with one automatic qualifier and possibly 2 in mens singles ...ayush is pushing to be around 22nd now .... The weightlifting team is doing well so maybe just 1 more like nirmala.... 

But womens hockey can be the heart breaker like last time ...  

 

Any podcasts planned for commonwealth and asian games

[Siddhartha Talukdar 254]

Hi @nitinsanker, @Indian Sports fan, @Fly_like_a_don, @Prashanth, @Roamingrover86 @tirtha22 @Vaibhav Manocha @Vaibhav (minchu) @sanjaydas @rohan sharma  @Dolby @Prakash @Sanjib @Shravan KumarHi @nitinsanker, @Indian Sports fan, @Fly_like_a_don, @Prashanth, @Roamingrover86 @tirtha22 @Vaibhav Manocha @Vaibhav (minchu) @sanjaydas @rohan sharma  @Dolby @Prakash @Sanjib @Shravan Kumar

with most of the sports' qualification documents released below is my qualification simulation based on rankings and current performances only. Hope to hear your views as well

ARCHERY 
Only 8 teams shall qualify in Recurve as quotas have been allocated to Compound. Men's team is ranked fourth and women's team is ranked 7th so both teams qualify. 
In Compound Archery, 12 mixed teams qualify and our team is ranked first.

Number of athletes = 8

BADMINTON
Men's Singles - Lakshya Sen

Men's Doubles - Chirag Shetty / Satwiksairaj Rankireddy

Women's Singles - PV Sindhu

Women's Doubles - Treesa Jolly / Gayathri Gopichand

Mixed Doubles - Dhruv Kapila / Tanisha Crasto

Number of athletes = 8

 

CYCLING
In Team Sprint, top 8 nations qualify but India is ranked 16th in Men's Rankings. In Individual Sprint, Esow Alben is ranked 46th and he needs to be 30ish to qualify
Number of athletes = 0

 

EQUESTRIAN

Dressage - Anush Agarwalla is ranked 244 and may qualify

Eventing - Ashish Limaye is ranked 238. In Group G, its difficult to qualify as there are  ahead of him

Number of athletes = 1

 

FENCING

None of our fencers qualify automatically and thus have to play Qualification tournament
So here rankings of our competitors in each tournament

 

Men' Epee	Men's Foil	Men's Sabre	Women' Epee	Women's Foil	Women's Sabre
- 30	- 36	- 15	- 35	- 26	- 33
- 37	- 63	- 27	- 46	- 31	- 45
- 39	- 98	- 36	- 81	- 52	- 49
- 44	- 113	- 46	- 86	- 54	- 59
- 143	- 289	- 75		- 206

Number of athletes = 0

 

 

GOLF

In Men's event, only no golfer is expected to qualify as highest ranked golfer is Yuvraj Sandhu who is ranked 420th. He needs to be within 380 rank to qualify
In Women's event, Aditi Ashok (172 rank) and Diksha Dagar (245 rank) shall qualify

Number of athletes = 2

 

HOCKEY

Both the gender teams should qualify

Number of athletes = 30

 

JUDO

In each weight class, top 17 judokas qualify. Shraddha Chopade is ranked 18th in Women's 52 kg and just outside the direct qualification zone. Otherwise she will qualify via continental quota

Number of athletes = 1

 

ROWING

One boat in Men's Single Sculls

Number of athletes = 1

 

SAILING

Vishnu Saravanan in Men's Laser and Nethra Kumanan in Women's Laser Radial

Number of athletes = 2

 

SHOOTING

Predicting atleast 20 quotas 

 

SQUASH

Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh can currently qualify by rankings

Number of athletes = 2

 

TENNIS

Sumit Nagal is ranked 283 right now so will not qualify.

There is no Indian in top 10 of Men's Doubles but pair of Yuki Bhambhri (rank 18) and Rohan Bopanna (rank 62) have combined rank of 80 and perhaps may sneak in depending which players want to team up

Number of athletes = 0 

 

WEIGHTLIFTING

Mirabai Chanu in new weight class 53 kg

Number of athletes = 1

 

WRESTLING

Predicting about 7 quotas 

 

[Siddhartha Talukdar 254]

14 hours ago, nitinsanker said:

Any podcasts planned for commonwealth and asian games

Yes I have plan for FIFA World Cup, Commonwealth and Asian Games

[Prakash 50]

4 hours ago, Siddhartha Talukdar said:

Hi @nitinsanker, @Indian Sports fan, @Fly_like_a_don, @Prashanth, @Roamingrover86 @tirtha22 @Vaibhav Manocha @Vaibhav (minchu) @sanjaydas @rohan sharma  @Dolby @Prakash @Sanjib @Shravan KumarHi @nitinsanker, @Indian Sports fan, @Fly_like_a_don, @Prashanth, @Roamingrover86 @tirtha22 @Vaibhav Manocha @Vaibhav (minchu) @sanjaydas @rohan sharma  @Dolby @Prakash @Sanjib @Shravan Kumar

with most of the sports' qualification documents released below is my qualification simulation based on rankings and current performances only. Hope to hear your views as well

ARCHERY 
Only 8 teams shall qualify in Recurve as quotas have been allocated to Compound. Men's team is ranked fourth and women's team is ranked 7th so both teams qualify. 
In Compound Archery, 12 mixed teams qualify and our team is ranked first.

Number of athletes = 8

BADMINTON
Men's Singles - Lakshya Sen

Men's Doubles - Chirag Shetty / Satwiksairaj Rankireddy

Women's Singles - PV Sindhu

Women's Doubles - Treesa Jolly / Gayathri Gopichand

Mixed Doubles - Dhruv Kapila / Tanisha Crasto

Number of athletes = 8

 

CYCLING
In Team Sprint, top 8 nations qualify but India is ranked 16th in Men's Rankings. In Individual Sprint, Esow Alben is ranked 46th and he needs to be 30ish to qualify
Number of athletes = 0

 

EQUESTRIAN

Dressage - Anush Agarwalla is ranked 244 and may qualify

Eventing - Ashish Limaye is ranked 238. In Group G, its difficult to qualify as there are  ahead of him

Number of athletes = 1

 

FENCING

None of our fencers qualify automatically and thus have to play Qualification tournament
So here rankings of our competitors in each tournament

 

Men' Epee	Men's Foil	Men's Sabre	Women' Epee	Women's Foil	Women's Sabre
- 30	- 36	- 15	- 35	- 26	- 33
- 37	- 63	- 27	- 46	- 31	- 45
- 39	- 98	- 36	- 81	- 52	- 49
- 44	- 113	- 46	- 86	- 54	- 59
- 143	- 289	- 75		- 206

Number of athletes = 0

 

 

GOLF

In Men's event, only no golfer is expected to qualify as highest ranked golfer is Yuvraj Sandhu who is ranked 420th. He needs to be within 380 rank to qualify
In Women's event, Aditi Ashok (172 rank) and Diksha Dagar (245 rank) shall qualify

Number of athletes = 2

 

HOCKEY

Both the gender teams should qualify

Number of athletes = 30

 

JUDO

In each weight class, top 17 judokas qualify. Shraddha Chopade is ranked 18th in Women's 52 kg and just outside the direct qualification zone. Otherwise she will qualify via continental quota

Number of athletes = 1

 

ROWING

One boat in Men's Single Sculls

Number of athletes = 1

 

SAILING

Vishnu Saravanan in Men's Laser and Nethra Kumanan in Women's Laser Radial

Number of athletes = 2

 

SHOOTING

Predicting atleast 20 quotas 

 

SQUASH

Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh can currently qualify by rankings

Number of athletes = 2

 

TENNIS

Sumit Nagal is ranked 283 right now so will not qualify.

There is no Indian in top 10 of Men's Doubles but pair of Yuki Bhambhri (rank 18) and Rohan Bopanna (rank 62) have combined rank of 80 and perhaps may sneak in depending which players want to team up

Number of athletes = 0 

 

WEIGHTLIFTING

Mirabai Chanu in new weight class 53 kg

Number of athletes = 1

 

WRESTLING

Predicting about 7 quotas 

 

Good one 

[Roamingrover86 941]

On 2/12/2026 at 11:24 AM, Siddhartha Talukdar said:

Hi @nitinsanker, @Indian Sports fan, @Fly_like_a_don, @Prashanth, @Roamingrover86 @tirtha22 @Vaibhav Manocha @Vaibhav (minchu) @sanjaydas @rohan sharma  @Dolby @Prakash @Sanjib @Shravan KumarHi @nitinsanker, @Indian Sports fan, @Fly_like_a_don, @Prashanth, @Roamingrover86 @tirtha22 @Vaibhav Manocha @Vaibhav (minchu) @sanjaydas @rohan sharma  @Dolby @Prakash @Sanjib @Shravan Kumar

with most of the sports' qualification documents released below is my qualification simulation based on rankings and current performances only. Hope to hear your views as well

ARCHERY 
Only 8 teams shall qualify in Recurve as quotas have been allocated to Compound. Men's team is ranked fourth and women's team is ranked 7th so both teams qualify. 
In Compound Archery, 12 mixed teams qualify and our team is ranked first.

Number of athletes = 8

BADMINTON
Men's Singles - Lakshya Sen

Men's Doubles - Chirag Shetty / Satwiksairaj Rankireddy

Women's Singles - PV Sindhu

Women's Doubles - Treesa Jolly / Gayathri Gopichand

Mixed Doubles - Dhruv Kapila / Tanisha Crasto

Number of athletes = 8

 

CYCLING
In Team Sprint, top 8 nations qualify but India is ranked 16th in Men's Rankings. In Individual Sprint, Esow Alben is ranked 46th and he needs to be 30ish to qualify
Number of athletes = 0

 

EQUESTRIAN

Dressage - Anush Agarwalla is ranked 244 and may qualify

Eventing - Ashish Limaye is ranked 238. In Group G, its difficult to qualify as there are  ahead of him

Number of athletes = 1

 

FENCING

None of our fencers qualify automatically and thus have to play Qualification tournament
So here rankings of our competitors in each tournament

 

Men' Epee	Men's Foil	Men's Sabre	Women' Epee	Women's Foil	Women's Sabre
- 30	- 36	- 15	- 35	- 26	- 33
- 37	- 63	- 27	- 46	- 31	- 45
- 39	- 98	- 36	- 81	- 52	- 49
- 44	- 113	- 46	- 86	- 54	- 59
- 143	- 289	- 75		- 206

Number of athletes = 0

 

 

GOLF

In Men's event, only no golfer is expected to qualify as highest ranked golfer is Yuvraj Sandhu who is ranked 420th. He needs to be within 380 rank to qualify
In Women's event, Aditi Ashok (172 rank) and Diksha Dagar (245 rank) shall qualify

Number of athletes = 2

 

HOCKEY

Both the gender teams should qualify

Number of athletes = 30

 

JUDO

In each weight class, top 17 judokas qualify. Shraddha Chopade is ranked 18th in Women's 52 kg and just outside the direct qualification zone. Otherwise she will qualify via continental quota

Number of athletes = 1

 

ROWING

One boat in Men's Single Sculls

Number of athletes = 1

 

SAILING

Vishnu Saravanan in Men's Laser and Nethra Kumanan in Women's Laser Radial

Number of athletes = 2

 

SHOOTING

Predicting atleast 20 quotas 

 

SQUASH

Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh can currently qualify by rankings

Number of athletes = 2

 

TENNIS

Sumit Nagal is ranked 283 right now so will not qualify.

There is no Indian in top 10 of Men's Doubles but pair of Yuki Bhambhri (rank 18) and Rohan Bopanna (rank 62) have combined rank of 80 and perhaps may sneak in depending which players want to team up

Number of athletes = 0 

 

WEIGHTLIFTING

Mirabai Chanu in new weight class 53 kg

Number of athletes = 1

 

WRESTLING

Predicting about 7 quotas 

 

What about other sports like TT , Athletics , Hockey Cricket , Boxing ?  

Also I think we might/should qualify a fencer from the continental qualification tournament. 

[Siddhartha Talukdar 254]

3 hours ago, Roamingrover86 said:

What about other sports like TT , Athletics , Hockey Cricket , Boxing ?  

Also I think we might/should qualify a fencer from the continental qualification tournament. 

Hockey is mentioned here. Table Tennis documents is released recently and I will add a Google sheet to show simulation of qualifications for all sports and NOC.

Cricket, Athletics and Boxing haven't been released yet