Wrestling, archery, and shooting have been excluded from the initial sports list for the 2026 commonwealth games putting prospects of Indian medal tally at risk as these three sports are the ones that traditionally have been dominated by India.

Shooting is the most successful sport for India in the commonwealth games giving 135 medals, while wrestling has been the third most successful sport with 102 medals won.

The initial list of games gets decided by the host from the 22 core sports list. The 2026 Commonwealth games will be hosted by Victoria State, Australia. The Indian Olympic association termed this move of exclusion a grave injustice and said it will protest against this decision after consultation with the sports ministry.

The CGF general assembly approved a new policy last year under which only athletics and swimming will be compulsory, the freedom to decide on the rest of the sports lies with the host nation. Australia can add more games if it wishes to by the end of this year.

Sportspersons and sports administrators sense a colonial mindset and hangover in exclusion of these sports from Commonwealth games. Secretary-General of Nation Rifle Association of India Kunwar Sultan Singh said, “Their non-performance has not gone down well with CWG authorities. Indians and Asians have always been the winners and have been on the medal tally. The Commonwealth countries were somehow not able to beat it. So, they have forcefully pushed it out of the list.”

Arjuna awardee archer Atanu Das( World number 9 archer and two-time Olympian ) said," Maybe, they fear that India will sweep all the medals in CWG. That's why they pulled archery also out of Commonwealth Games."