Badminton at the 20th Asian Games runs from 20 to 29 September 2026 at the Ichinomiya City Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, north-west of Nagoya. Team events are decided first, from the 20th to the 24th, followed by the five individual disciplines from the 25th to the 29th.
Why it is harder than the World Championships
A World Championships draw has soft early rounds — 64 players from more than forty nations, and a top seed’s first opponent is usually ranked outside the top sixty. An Asian Games draw has no such padding. The same countries that filled the Delhi quarter-finals all arrive here in a far smaller field, and there is nobody safe to draw in round one.
One absence shapes the men’s event more than any presence. Alex Lanier, who won the 2026 world title in Delhi, is French and cannot enter. Kodai Naraoka — the man he beat 21-11, 21-11 in that final — is Japanese, and plays this one at home.
India’s record here
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won India’s first ever Asian Games badminton gold at Hangzhou in 2023, beating Choi Sol-gyu and Kim Won-ho 21-18, 21-16. India also took men’s team silver and a men’s singles bronze through HS Prannoy at those Games. At Jakarta 2018, PV Sindhu won silver and Saina Nehwal bronze in women’s singles.
Satwik and Chirag travel to Japan as defending champions — the only Asian Games badminton title India has ever had to defend.
For India’s full twenty-member squad by discipline, the schedule, how to watch, and why the squad list and the form guide no longer agree, see our Asian Games 2026 badminton guide.
Kreeda is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Badminton World Federation, the Olympic Council of Asia or the Badminton Association of India. Schedule and entries are subject to change.
