A team that wins nine of ten possible gold medals has a problem that looks like the opposite of a problem: nobody can tell whether it is improving. India's kabaddi teams found out in 2018 what the answer was, and this week they answered it again.
At the 2026 Asian Games, India's men's team beat Iran in the final to take gold, becoming nine-time champions, and the women's team also beat Iran for gold. The women's win took India's overall medal tally at the Games past 100.
How the game works
Kabaddi is worth describing properly, because it is the rare sport whose rules examinations actually ask about.
Two teams of seven players each occupy halves of a court. Play alternates: one team sends a single raider into the opposition half. The raider's task is to touch or tag as many opposing players — called antis or defenders — as possible and return across the midline, scoring a point for each defender touched.
The constraint is the distinctive part. Throughout the raid the raider must maintain the cant — a continuous chant of "kabaddi, kabaddi" — on a single breath. If the chant breaks, the raid is void. A raid must be completed within 30 seconds.
The defenders' job is to stop the raider returning, by tackling or holding, or by pushing them out of the court. A defender who is touched is out; a raider who is tackled before returning is out. Players return to the court as their team scores, and when a team's entire side is out the opposition scores bonus points — a lona — and all players return.
Two features make it a genuinely unusual sport. It requires no equipment at all beyond a marked surface, which is why it developed as a village game across South Asia and why it remains accessible where facilities are not. And the breath-held chant converts an ordinary contact contest into a test of anaerobic capacity under physical pressure — the raider is doing explosive work while unable to breathe, which is closer to a combat exertion than most sports get.
The Asian Games record
Kabaddi entered the Asian Games programme at Beijing in 1990. Six teams — India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Japan and Nepal — played a round-robin, and India went through undefeated to the gold.
What followed was one of the most complete national dominances in any Asian Games sport. India's men won seven successive golds from 1990. The women's event was introduced in 2010, and India won that too, repeatedly.
Then came Jakarta in 2018, which is the edition every question on this topic is built around. Iran won gold in both events for the first time — beating India in the men's semi-final, after which India finished fourth, and beating India 27-24 in the women's final. It ended India's unbroken run of Asian Games kabaddi titles since the sport's debut.
With the 2026 results, India's men have now taken nine of the ten golds awarded since 1990, and the women's team has won every edition except 2018.
Why 2018 mattered more than the medal table suggests
The temptation is to read 2018 as an aberration. The more useful reading is that it was the predictable consequence of a sport succeeding internationally, and understanding why makes for a much better answer.
A team that wins every tournament has no competitive information. It cannot tell whether its methods are improving or merely sufficient, because the margin against weak opposition reveals nothing. Iran's rise removed that comfort. Iranian kabaddi invested in strength and conditioning, in structured defence — the multi-player chain tackle rather than individual holds — and in treating the game as a professional sport with a coaching system behind it.
There is a specific Indian contribution to that story worth knowing. The Pro Kabaddi League, launched in 2014, professionalised the sport and gave it a television audience. It also brought foreign players, Iranians prominent among them, into Indian franchises, where they trained in Indian conditions against Indian players and took the methods home. India's own league helped build its principal rival — which is exactly what a successful league does, and is not a reason to regret it.
The honest framing is that Iran's emergence made kabaddi a sport rather than an exhibition. A competition with one certain winner has no jeopardy, no reason for other nations to invest, and a weak case for remaining on a multi-sport programme. Beating Iran in both finals is worth more than beating a field that could not compete.
The institutional and Olympic question
The domestic federation is the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI), founded in 1950, which codified the rules that the international game uses. Internationally, the sport is governed by the International Kabaddi Federation.
Kabaddi also appeared at the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a demonstration sport, presented by an Indian delegation — a fact asked with some regularity and often misremembered as an Olympic medal event, which it was not.
The live question is whether kabaddi can move beyond Asia. Its strengths are real: no equipment, a small playing area, short matches that televise well, and rules that can be explained in under a minute. Its constraint is geographic concentration — competitive strength sits overwhelmingly in South and West Asia, and Olympic inclusion requires demonstrated participation across continents. The Kabaddi World Cup and the circuit around it exist substantially to address that.
For the broader context of India's campaign at these Games, our explainer on India's Asian Games contingent and the road from 1951 covers the history of the event and India's participation in it.
Why this belongs in defence-exam preparation
Two reasons, and they are practical rather than decorative.
Sports questions are a standing component of the general knowledge sections, and indigenous sports — kabaddi, kho-kho, mallakhamb — attract disproportionate attention because they are distinctively Indian and because their institutional histories are compact enough to examine.
More substantially, kabaddi has a long association with military and police physical training in India, and for a recognisable reason. It develops explosive movement, grappling strength, breath control under load, spatial awareness in a confined area, and rapid individual decision-making inside a team structure. It needs no equipment and can be played on any flat ground by fourteen people. For a service that must train physical capability at scale, in whatever space is available, that combination is hard to beat — which is why the game is played on unit grounds across the armed forces and appears in service-level competitions.
🔑 Revision block
- 2026 Asian Games: India's men's team beat Iran for gold, becoming nine-time champions; the women's team also beat Iran for gold, taking India's overall tally past 100 medals
- Asian Games debut: 1990, Beijing — six teams (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Japan, Nepal) in round-robin; India undefeated
- Women's event introduced: 2010
- India's men's record: nine of ten golds since 1990, including seven successive golds before 2018
- 2018 Jakarta: Iran won both titles — beat India in the men's semi-final (India finished fourth) and the women's final 27-24
- Women's record: gold in every edition except 2018
- Team size: seven players a side
- The raid: a single raider enters the opposition half to touch antis (defenders) and return across the midline; must maintain the cant — a continuous chant on one breath; raid limited to 30 seconds
- Lona: bonus points when a team's entire side is out
- Distinctive features: requires no equipment; the breath-held chant makes it a test of anaerobic capacity under physical pressure
- Pro Kabaddi League: launched 2014; professionalised the sport and brought foreign players, notably Iranians, into Indian franchises
- Domestic federation: Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI), founded 1950
- International body: International Kabaddi Federation
- Olympics: appeared at the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a demonstration sport — never a medal event
- Obstacle to Olympic inclusion: competitive strength concentrated in South and West Asia; inclusion needs cross-continental participation
- Why it suits service training: explosive movement, grappling strength, breath control, spatial awareness, rapid decisions in a team, and no equipment
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. Kabaddi made its Asian Games debut as a medal sport at: (a) New Delhi 1982 (b) Seoul 1986 (c) Beijing 1990 (d) Hiroshima 1994
→ (c) — six teams played a round-robin and India won undefeated.
Q2. How many players constitute a kabaddi team on court? (a) Five (b) Six (c) Nine (d) Seven
→ (d)
Q3. The continuous chant a raider must maintain on a single breath is called the: (a) Lona (b) Bonus line (c) Cant (d) Anti
→ (c) — an "anti" is a defender.
Q4. A raid in kabaddi must be completed within: (a) 20 seconds (b) 30 seconds (c) 45 seconds (d) 60 seconds
→ (b)
Q5. At which Asian Games did Iran win gold in both the men's and women's kabaddi events? (a) Guangzhou 2010 (b) Incheon 2014 (c) Hangzhou 2022 (d) Jakarta 2018
→ (d) — India's men finished fourth that year.
Q6. The women's kabaddi competition was introduced at the Asian Games in: (a) 2002 (b) 2006 (c) 2010 (d) 2014
→ (c)
Q7. Kabaddi featured at the 1936 Berlin Olympics as: (a) A demonstration sport (b) A full medal event (c) Part of the modern pentathlon (d) An exhibition for women only
→ (a) — it has never been an Olympic medal event.
Q8. "Lona" in kabaddi refers to: (a) A foul committed by the raider (b) Bonus points awarded when the entire opposing side is out (c) The line a raider must cross to score (d) A substitution during play
→ (b)
Q9. The Pro Kabaddi League, launched in 2014, contributed indirectly to Iran's rise because it: (a) Relocated its matches to Iran (b) Adopted Iranian rules (c) Brought foreign players including Iranians into Indian franchises, where they trained against Indian players (d) Barred Indian players from international competition
→ (c)
Q10. Consider the following statements: 1. A team that wins every tournament gains little competitive information about its own standard. 2. Kabaddi requires specialised equipment, which limits its spread. Which is/are correct? (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2
→ (a) — the sport needs no equipment beyond a marked surface, which is one of its main advantages.
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
Sports is a dependable component of the NDA general ability paper, and indigenous sports carry more than their share of the questions.
The debut question asks when a sport entered the Asian Games or the Olympics. Kabaddi at Beijing 1990 for the Asian Games, and Berlin 1936 as an Olympic demonstration sport. The second is the one most often misremembered, and the word demonstration is what the question turns on.
The rules question asks team size, the name of the chant, the raid time limit, or what a term means. Seven players, the cant, thirty seconds, lona. These are compact facts and they recur.
The record question asks how many golds India has won, or which country broke the run. Iran, at Jakarta 2018 — the single most asked kabaddi fact, because the exception is more examinable than the rule.
The federation question asks which body governs the sport domestically. AKFI, founded 1950. Governing bodies for indigenous sports are worth a short list, alongside the Kho-Kho Federation of India and similar.
For the SSB interview, kabaddi is a better answer than it looks to a question about sport. A candidate who explains that it needs no equipment, develops breath control and grappling strength under load, and can be played by fourteen people on any flat ground — and that this is precisely why it is played on unit grounds — is connecting a sporting interest to service relevance. That is a more considered answer than naming a favourite cricketer.
Preparing for NDA? Sports questions are pure recall, so they are the cheapest marks available — keep one short list of debuts, team sizes and governing bodies. Build the base with our NDA general ability notes, follow the daily NDA current affairs, and prepare with our faculty in the upcoming Cavalier courses in Delhi.
✍️ Written by Col Vijyanat Thakur — Defence studies faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk.