Pramod Bhagat at the Asian Para Games 2026
Pramod Bhagat goes to the 2026 Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, as the reigning world champion in men’s singles SL3, the class for standing players with a lower-limb impairment. He is also one of India’s two flag bearers at the opening ceremony on 18 October, alongside table tennis player Bhavina Patel. Para badminton runs from 16 to 23 October.
His Asian Para Games record is six medals: two gold and four bronze. He won the SL3 singles title at both Jakarta 2018 and Hangzhou 2022 (held in 2023), so he arrives in Japan chasing a third straight gold in the event.
On 22 October he won bronze in the mixed doubles SL3-SU5 with Manisha Ramadass, his seventh Asian Para Games medal. This profile will be updated with his other results during the Games.
Why Pramod Bhagat missed Paris 2024
On 1 March 2024, the anti-doping division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport found that Bhagat had committed three whereabouts failures within 12 months, a breach of the Badminton World Federation’s anti-doping rules. A whereabouts failure means an athlete missed a test because they were not where they had told officials they would be, or did not file those details correctly. The case was about whereabouts, not a positive drug test.
His appeal was dismissed on 29 July 2024, and the BWF announced the 18-month ban on 13 August 2024, about two weeks before the Paris Paralympics began. He could not defend his Tokyo title. Another Indian, Nitesh Kumar, won the SL3 gold in Paris.
The comeback: Pramod Bhagat’s 2025 and 2026 seasons
The ban ended on 1 September 2025. About three weeks later, at the China Para Badminton International in Beijing, he won the SL3 singles on his return, beating Indonesia’s Muhammad Al Imran 15-21, 21-19, 21-16 in the final.
In February 2026, at the BWF Para Badminton World Championships in Manama, Bahrain, he beat Al Imran again in the final, this time 21-12, 21-18. It was his sixth world title in men’s singles and his fourth in a row. He also won the men’s doubles gold with Sukant Kadam.
Pramod Bhagat’s career highlights
- 2009, World Championships: gold, men’s singles (his first world title)
- 2014, Asian Para Games, Incheon: bronze, men’s singles
- 2015, World Championships: gold, men’s singles SL3
- 2018, Asian Para Games, Jakarta: gold, men’s singles SL3; bronze, men’s doubles
- 2019, World Championships: gold, men’s singles SL3
- 2021, Tokyo Paralympics: gold, men’s singles SL3, beating Great Britain’s Daniel Bethell in the final
- 2022, World Championships: gold, men’s singles SL3
- 2023, Asian Para Games, Hangzhou: gold, men’s singles SL3; bronze, men’s doubles (with Sukant Kadam); bronze, mixed doubles (with Manisha Ramadass)
- 2024, World Championships: gold, men’s singles SL3
- 2026, World Championships, Manama: gold, men’s singles SL3; gold, men’s doubles (with Sukant Kadam)
From polio to Paralympic champion
Bhagat was born on 4 June 1988. He had polio at the age of five, and it left a lasting impairment in his left leg. He became hooked on badminton at 13 after watching a match, and he first competed against able-bodied players before moving into para badminton.
He represents Odisha and is based in Bhubaneswar. He received the Arjuna Award in 2019 and the Padma Shri in 2022. In 2021 he became the first athlete from Odisha to receive the Khel Ratna, India’s highest sporting honour, in the same year as shooter Avani Lekhara.
What next for Pramod Bhagat
In Aichi-Nagoya, the target is a third straight Asian Para Games singles gold. Any medal would also take his Asian Para Games total past six. The next major target after that is the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympics, where he would have the chance to win back the title he could not defend in Paris.
For another Indian para champion in action in Japan, read the profile of Harvinder Singh, the Paris 2024 archery gold medallist.
Updated 22 October 2026. Sources: Assam Tribune (2026 bronze), myKhel (2026 bronze), The Bridge (suspension), Outlook India (suspension), The Bridge (comeback), OdishaBytes (comeback), All India Radio (2026 world title), The Logical Indian (2026 world title), Outlook India (flag bearers), The Week (Paris 2024), Orissa Post (Khel Ratna), Sports Digest and Wikipedia.
