India says it wants yogasana in a future Olympics, but no Olympic inclusion process is confirmed

Current assessment: India is actively promoting yogasana,a competitive, judged form of yoga,as a prospective Olympic discipline, but the available evidence supports an advocacy campaign rather than a confirmed Olympic-program development. India’s sports minister has said the government will seek to establish yogasana as an Olympic sport in connection with the country’s 2036 Games bid. The International Olympic Committee, however, has not identified yogasana as an approved Olympic event, and India has not yet been chosen to host the 2036 Games.

Reported facts

NBC New York reported on October 23 that India is seeking to bring yogasana into the Olympic conversation while pursuing the 2036 Summer Games. The report described yogasana as the competitive version of yoga, in which athletes perform and hold demanding postures, and noted that India staged a World Yogasana Championship in June.

The central claim is corroborated by India’s Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. In a May 26 Press Information Bureau release, Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said India would make efforts to establish yogasana as an Olympic sport as the country pursued the 2036 Games. At the opening of the first World Yogasana Championship in Ahmedabad on June 4, Mandaviya again described inclusion in future Commonwealth and Olympic events as an ambition.

Supporting evidence

The government’s public statements are direct evidence that India is promoting yogasana’s international sporting status. The World Yogasana Championship also provides evidence of institutional effort to frame yogasana as a competitive discipline: the government said the inaugural event brought together more than 500 athletes and delegations from dozens of countries. NBC reported 522 athletes from 79 countries, with India winning 114 medals. Those figures differ slightly, but both accounts establish that the event was international in scope.

Separately, the IOC confirms that India is in “Continuous Dialogue” as an interested party for the 2036 Games, alongside Germany, Hungary, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, South Africa and Türkiye. The IOC’s current timetable calls for feasibility assessments by March 2027, a narrower strategic dialogue beginning that month, and a host election in mid-2029. The available record therefore supports describing India as a prospective host, not the host of the 2036 Olympics.

Limitations and competing evidence

The key limitation is that an Indian government objective is not equivalent to Olympic recognition or inclusion. The consulted IOC host-selection announcement does not mention yogasana as a proposed Olympic discipline. NBC reported that the IOC was focused on finalizing the program for the 2032 Brisbane Games and that Olympic-sport eligibility involves international-federation and multi-continent participation requirements. That reporting provides useful context, but it does not establish whether yogasana currently satisfies every applicable requirement or whether a governing body has begun a formal IOC recognition process.

There is also a distinction between yoga as a broad cultural and wellness practice and yogasana as a formal competitive discipline. NBC reported criticism from some yoga teachers who argue that competition conflicts with yoga’s underlying purpose. That criticism does not determine Olympic eligibility, but it shows that the competitive model remains contested within parts of the yoga community.

Current conclusion

The available evidence suggests that India has made a genuine, publicly stated push to elevate yogasana toward future multi-sport and Olympic competition. It does not establish that yogasana will appear at an Olympic Games, that it has entered a formal IOC inclusion pathway, or that India will host the 2036 Olympics. Documentation of a recognized international governing-body application, an IOC program decision, or a formal host-city election result would materially change this assessment.