Saturday, 05 Oct, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
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The disciplines of shooting, archery, and wrestling will be dropped off the Games schedule for the 2026 edition, which will be hosted in the Australian state of Victoria, inflicting a setback to India's medal hopes at the Commonwealth Games (CWG).
The disciplines of shooting, archery, and wrestling will be dropped off the Games schedule for the 2026 edition, which will be hosted in the Australian state of Victoria, inflicting a setback to India's medal hopes at the Commonwealth Games (CWG). In order to give the host nation the freedom to select sports from the 22 core sports, shooting, archery, and wrestling were removed from the Games schedule. In order to draw in future audiences, the 2026–30 Strategic Roadmap, which the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) had approved in October 2021, suggested that the only mandatory sports at future CWGs be swimming and athletics. Shooting and Archery were not even the part of the recently held Birmingham CWG.
These were the games in which India always had the high chances of bagging a medal but the recent decision of exclusion of the sports like shooting archery and wrestling from the up-coming CWGs in Australia has forced India to rethink its stance on participating in the 2026 CWGs as Shooting remains one of the most important sports for India as it has won 135 medals out of the total 503. The exclusion of wrestling from the 2026 CWG also comes as a psychological shock for India as the north Indian states of Punjab and Haryana contribute to wrestling by providing world-class wrestlers. Multiple world championships medallist and Olympic bronze medallist Bajrang Punia has also expressed his indignation over the decision of exclusion of wrestling. Both the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) have asked the Sports Ministry to take the lead in trying to restore their sports in the 2026 sports programme.
Taking into consideration the matter above, the TEAM CVOTER- INDIA TRACKER conducted a nation-wide survey by posing the question- “Several sports such as shooting, wrestling and archery have been axed from the 2026 Commonwealth Games that will be held in Australia. India always has a good chance of winning medal in these sports. Do you think India should start boycotting CWG in view of this decision?” Despite of the decision of boycotting the CWGs being a debatable issue, 62.3% respondents were in favour of boycotting the games while 37.7% were against it.
Source: Cvoter-IndiaTracker
As the chart shows, majority of Indians (62.3%) are of the opinion that India should boycott the 2026 CWGs in Australia. People across different age groups, ethnicities, religions and locations were in favour of the notion. Among all the people, 70.4% of the Scheduled Castes and the Muslims strongly responded in favour of boycotting the CWGs. Only the Christians completely rejected the idea of going against the notion and rejected it.
Source: Cvoter-IndiaTracker
There were diverse opinions among different ethnic groups. The strongest sentiment of boycotting the 2026 CWGs was present among the Muslims and the Scheduled Castes and on the other hand the Christians and Sikhs were against the thought of boycotting the games. There was not much difference between the opinions of NDA and the Opposition voters as there was a very little difference in their opinions. The people from rural areas too supported the notion. The age group between 35-44 years strongly seconded the notion as 69.1% of the respondents were in favour of boycotting the 2026 CWGs.
The result of the survey clearly shows that majority (62.3%) of the people across India belonging to different age groups, gender, ethnicities, religions and locations are in favour of boycotting the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
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