New Delhi : India registered its second-best performance at the 2026 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, securing 10 medals, including two gold, three silver and five bronze, across seven sporting disciplines.
The impressive campaign saw nine of the 17 Indian athletes winning medals, with five Khelo India Athletes featuring among the medallists, highlighting the growing contribution of the country’s grassroots sports development programme.
The Khelo India Athletes who made it to the podium included Tanvi Patri in badminton, Khushbu RajakbhaiDarjada in judo, ShouryaAmbure in athletics, Gunjan in boxing and TirthankPegu in swimming.
India’s 10-medal haul is its second-best performance at the Youth Olympic Games, surpassed only by the 13 medals won in the 2018 edition.
Boxing emerged as one of the biggest success stories, with LairenlakpamAmbekarMeetei winning gold in the boys’ 50kg category and Gunjan claiming gold in the girls’ 48kg category. The victories marked India’s first-ever gold medals in boxing at the Youth Olympic Games.
With two gold medals, boxing delivered a landmark performance for the country, while India also recorded its second-highest gold-medal tally in a single edition of the Games.
Swimming emerged as India’s most productive discipline, contributing three medals. DhinidhiDesinghu won bronze in the girls’ 100m and 200m freestyle events, becoming the first Indian athlete to secure two medals in a single edition of the Youth Olympic Games. TirthankPegu added another bronze in the boys’ 200m butterfly.
In badminton, Tanvi Patri secured silver in the girls’ singles event, becoming the first Indian woman to win a badminton medal at the Youth Olympic Games. Khushbu RajakbhaiDarjada added another silver in the girls’ 63kg judo category.
India also achieved a breakthrough in beach wrestling, with Taniya winning silver in the girls’ 75kg freestyle category, marking the country’s first-ever medal in the discipline at the Youth Olympics.
In athletics, ShouryaAmbure clinched bronze in the girls’ 100m hurdles, becoming the first Indian woman to win an athletics medal at the Youth Olympic Games.
Rajkumari LanchenbiChanu, a camper at the Sports Authority of India’s National Centre of Excellence in Imphal, secured bronze in the girls’ Changquan combined event in Wushu, giving India its first medal in the discipline at the Youth Olympics.
India won medals in seven of the 11 sports in which it competed, with the results reflecting growing competitiveness across established and emerging sporting disciplines.
The performance in Dakar also highlighted the impact of structured training and grassroots talent identification, with Khelo India athletes making significant contributions to the country’s medal tally.
India’s medal winners at the Dakar Youth Olympic Games 2026 included LairenlakpamAmbekarMeetei, who won gold in boxing in the boys’ 50kg category, and Gunjan, who clinched gold in the girls’ 48kg boxing category. The silver medallists were Khushbu RajakbhaiDarjada in judo (girls’ 63kg), Tanvi Patri in badminton (girls’ singles) and Taniya in beach wrestling (girls’ freestyle 75kg). The bronze medallists included DhinidhiDesinghu in swimming (girls’ 100m and 200m freestyle), TirthankPegu in swimming (boys’ 200m butterfly), ShouryaAmbure in athletics (girls’ 100m hurdles) and Rajkumari LanchenbiChanu in Wushu (girls’ Changquan combined).
