On August 8, India’s juggernaut performance at the Commonwealth Games 2022, held in Birmingham, came to a spirited end. Nearly 200 Indian athletes won medals across 12 different sports, bagging a total of 61 medals including 22 gold, 16 silver, and 23 bronze medals, to finish fourth in the overall standings behind Australia (178), England (176), and Canada (92). 

In a first for India, Indian women’s fours lawn bowls team scripted history by winning India’s first medal in the sport when they clinched gold, along with the men’s team that bagged the silver medal. For the first time since the inception of the Commonwealth Games, India won medals in both the men's and women's hockey in the same edition, with men and women clinching silver and bronze respectively. In another first, Avinash Sable won India’s first ever medal in 3000m men’s steeplechase. 

For the second consecutive time, the Indian wrestling contingent won medals in all events with Vinesh Phogat completing her hattrick of gold medals. Indian wrestling contingent contributed the most to the medal tally with all 12 wrestlers returning India with medals.

Veteran Achanta Kamal, won medals in all four table tennis events, including a first gold in mixed doubles, also emerging as the most successful Indian athlete at the 2022 Commonwealth Games- with 4 medals including 3 Gold.

However, in an unfortunate news, Tokyo Olympics Gold medallist and India’s shining champion, Neeraj Chopra, had to withdraw due to an injury left India one medal short. Moreover, India that has dominated shooting over the years, with the last edition having 16 medallists from India, was absent in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Despite these, India put on their fourth-best performance at the CWG in terms of Gold medals won tied with the 2006 Manchester Games.

 India has surely found new heroes this year in sports such as athletics, Lawn Bowls, Para Powerlifting apart from sports such as wrestling, boxing, and badminton, where India has done traditionally well. In the last edition of the Commonwealth Games, India won 3 medals in athletics, which was increased to 8 this year.

India’s medal rush ended with gold medals for PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and Satwiksairaj-Chirag Shetty in badminton and Sharath Kamal in table tennis. Sathiyan G won bronze in TT while the men’s hockey team was humbled by Australia in the final.

With the Indian contingent’s blistering confidence and medal spree, India, once again, highlighted the nation’s growing strength in the sporting world.