[orc]In the last four editions of the Commonwealth Games (CWG), India bagged a total of 101 gold medals. Shooters, Wrestlers & Weightlifters bagged 74 of these gold medals or more than 70%. Further, these three sports accounted for more than 60% of India’s medals at the CWG.
As reported previously by Factly, India improved its medal count in the 2018 CWG by bagging 66 medals and securing the 3rd position in the medal tally. A detailed analysis of the medals won by Indians across various sports provides some interesting insights. Three sports (Shooting, Wrestling & Weightlifting) were the major contributors to India’s medal tally across the last four editions.
73% of the Gold medals from Shooting, Wrestling & Weightlifting
Of all the gold medals won by Indian sportspersons at the last four editions of the CWG, more than 73% were bagged by Shooters, Wrestlers & Weightlifters. In 2006, 19 of the 22 gold medals that India bagged were from these three sports. In 2010, it was 26 out of the 38 gold medals and in 2018, it is 17 out of the 26 gold medals. Out of the 101 gold medals that India won at the last four editions of the CWG, 74 are from these three sports.
The contribution of these three sports to India’s medal tally is more than 60% when all the medals are considered. In 2006, 35 of the 50 medals that India won were from these three sports. In fact in 2006, Wrestling was not even part of the CWG. In other words, only Shooting & Weightlifting accounted for 70% of India’s medals in 2006. Across the last four editions of the CWG, India won a total of 281 medals out of which Shooting, Wrestling & Weightlifting together accounted for 171 or more than 60% of the medals.
Gold Medals make up for 40% of all the medals in 2018
The greatest proportion of gold medals were bagged in India in the 2006 games when 44% of her medals were Gold. It went to a lowest of 23.4% in 2014 when only 15 of the 64 medals were gold. In the 2018 games which just concluded, the proportion of gold medals reached 40%. Overall, out of the 281 medals India won in the previous four editions of the CWG, 101 are Gold (36%), 94 Silver (33%) and the remaining 86 Bronze (31%).
About 40% of the medals won by Women
The proportion of medals won by Indian Women at the CWG has increased over the years. In the 2006 games, women won 16 of the 50 medals (32%). In the 2010 edition, women bagged 36 of the 101 medals that India won. Women won more than 45% of the medals for India in the 2014 edition (29 out of 64) and in the 2018 games, women won 28 of the 66 medals for India. Over the last four editions, the proportion of medals won by women is about 39%. Women have been most dominant in Shooting, Wrestling & Weightlifting as is the case with men.
This is Part 2 of our special series on the Commonwealth Games. Read Part 1 here.
