India left the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games with a solid tally of 85 medals and fourth place in the continental table. That was 22 fewer medals than at Hangzhou in 2023, and the gold tally fell from 28 to 21. But judging our performance merely by the size of the haul misses the more interesting story. The country’s most striking gains came from its women, who won 11 of India’s 21 gold medals, more than half the country’s golds. Their contribution was not confined to the predictab