Kumkum Mohod, 17, stood next to Korean recurve archer Oh Yejin, beaming after having vanquished the Olympic champion. Pranavi Urs walked back from a historic golf gold almost matter-of-factly, after downing China’s Yin Ruoning, World No 6, a Major champion, and winner on the tour the previous week.
They looked assured, confident and certain that they belonged — the kind of conviction that comes after pulling off a major upset.
India’s women have increasingly fought for and earned their space, both on and off the field. And, now, they are doing so on the podium too.
At the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Indian women arrived at very different points in their careers – from teenagers such as Anahat Singh and Kumkum, established stars such as Mirabai Chanu and Lovlina Borgohain, and a 36-year-old Suchika Tariyal who refused to give up on her desire to win an Asiad medal.
Together, 234 women were in the 495-strong squad that was at the Games.
India returned with 85 medals (21 gold, 27 silver, 37 bronze). Women’s events accounted for 38 of them, the same number as men’s events, with nine medals coming from mixed competitions. But what was most remarkable was the view from atop the podium.
Out of the 21 gold medals India won, 11 came from women’s events and three from mixed ones.
In 2023, India earned nine golds from women’s events, 15 from men and four from mixed events.
Behind the medals were women who endured long waits and ended them, grew up hearing of records and then broke them, bemoaned their setbacks and returned, overcame illness and injury, and in some cases simply refused to let personal traumas and systemic hurdles halt their journeys.
The women’s cricket team set the ball rolling by winning India’s first gold.
Soon after, Mirabai Chanu’s silver ended a 28-year wait for an Indian weightlifting medal at the Asian Games, the country’s first since Karnam Malleswari’s silver at 1998 Bangkok. Vithya Ramraj won bronze in the 400m hurdles and, in the process, broke PT Usha’s 42-year-old national record, clocking 54.75secs.
In one of the sweetest victories of the Asian Games, the women’s hockey team climbed to the top step of the podium, ending a 44-year wait for a gold at the event.
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Then came the female boxers, both of whom completed contrasting redemption stories of their own. Lovlina, still carrying the disappointment of the Paris Olympics, unlocked another version of herself in Aichi-Nagoya. Her gold in the 75kg category made her only the second Indian woman boxer, after Mary Kom in 2014, to win an Asian Games gold.
Three years after her 57kg bronze from Hangzhou was struck off following a whereabouts failure –– a suspension that also cost her a chance to go to the Paris Olympics –– boxer Parveen Hooda returned in a new division (65kg) and won gold.
Trap shooter Neeru Dhanda completed a medal treble, carrying a body that had given her every reason to worry. She had been hospitalised shortly before the Games after a bout of Influenza B. She became the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games individual trap gold.
Ancy Sojan had a different battle in the months before the Games. The long-jumper has spoken about dealing with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) — the health condition makes training and maintenance of weight for an athlete whose sport demands explosiveness and a carefully managed body very challenging. She still cleared 6.53m for silver, missing gold by two centimetres.
Suchika Tariyal’s route to the podium was different. Sport had, in part, become a response to abuse and trauma as a child. At 36, she stood on the Games podium with bronze in mixed martial arts (MMA), a sport that was making its debut in Japan.
There are also lessons to learn from sporting powerhouses like China and the USA, who dominate Olympic sports. In the 1990s, China began a state-sponsored project to produce athletes who will win gold medals.
As a result, parity was ensured in women’s sport. It was both unlearning a lot of systematic and gender-based prejudices but also extremely strategic.
A deliberate focus on women’s sports because they tend to be underfunded in other countries became the way forward. The outcome is there to see, China emerging as a sporting powerhouse in the 2000s ensuring their programme was successful.
In 2026 too, China, unsurprisingly, have the most medals at the Asian Games, with 341 overall. At the Paris Olympics, 56% of the medals came from Chinese women. Similarly, the US women contributed 53.97% of their medal share in Paris.
For India, Aichi-Nagoya offered a view of what sport can look like when women get the opportunity to compete –– teen-aged and middle-aged, established and emerging, individual stars and team players, women who have had smooth journeys and those who have had to claw their way back.
And they could, like other sporting powerhouses, tap into a trend that is waiting to be unlocked.
It is becoming amply clear that sustained investment in women’s sport can boost a country’s medal tally.