SportsNews

Asian Para Games medallist Neeraj Yadav found dead in Delhi

The 42-year-old para-athlete was found at his residence on October 28. A post-mortem was underway, and the circumstances of his death had not been established.

NewsJaws DeskEditorial desk

Published 28 Oct 2026, 08:07 GMT2 min read

Accessible entrance at GTB Hospital in Delhi — An accessible entrance at GTB Hospital in Delhi. File photograph taken in 2013. Accessible entrance — Dr Satendra (resized and converted to WebP). CC BY-SA 3.0.Image source Image licence: CC BY-SA 3.0

Save for later

Indian para-athlete Neeraj Yadav, 42, was found dead at his Delhi residence on Wednesday, October 28, according to The Hindu’s PTI report. A post-mortem examination was underway at a Delhi hospital. The circumstances of his death had not been established.

S. Satyanarayana, head coach of India’s para-athletics team, confirmed that he had learned of Yadav’s death. “It is very unfortunate that such a thing has happened,” he said, according to The Hindu. The Times of India separately reported that the examination was taking place at GTB Hospital.

Neeraj Yadav’s Asian Para Games career

Yadav competed in the F55 classification for seated field events, including javelin, discus and shot put. He won javelin gold at the 2018 Asian Para Games in Jakarta, then javelin and discus golds at the 2023 Games in Hangzhou, The Hindu reported. Those performances made him a three-time gold medallist, although the two Hangzhou titles were subsequently stripped by the Asian Paralympic Committee.

The Hindu reported that the Hangzhou medals were stripped after a National Anti-Doping Agency report reached the World Anti-Doping Agency. Yadav also missed the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games earlier this month because of a doping suspension. His absence from those Games was a recent change in a career that had included gold medals at two editions of the competition.

The Times of India reported that the National Anti-Doping Agency had provisionally suspended Yadav after an out-of-competition sample collected in Bengaluru in October 2023 tested positive for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid. It said he later sought DNA testing of the sample through the anti-doping disciplinary process. The report did not establish that the suspension contributed to his death.

Yadav was diagnosed with post-polio residual paralysis at age seven, according to The Hindu. He first took up wheelchair tennis before switching to para-athletics. His results in javelin and discus at successive Asian Para Games placed him among India’s accomplished competitors in seated field events, even as the later medal decision altered his record.

What is known about Yadav’s death

The Times of India attributed an account of suicide and suspected poisoning to its sources and reported that Satyanarayana had been told Yadav consumed poison. Both reports said the circumstances remained unconfirmed. Satyanarayana suggested Yadav may have been distressed about missing the Games, but he did not establish what caused his death. The post-mortem examination was still underway when the reports were filed.