Yamini Mourya from Bhiwani won the silver medal in women’s 57kg category event in judo at the Commonwealth Games 2026.
Published: August 11, 2026, 12:00 PM IST
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Indian judoka Yamini Mourya displays her CWG silver medal with PM Narendra Modi in New Delhi(Photo: IANS)
India is getting ready to head into its 80th year of Independence and the year 2026 has already begun on a golden note with a rich haul of medals from the Commonwealth Games 2026 edition in Glasgow earlier this monthIndia ended up with a total of 39 medals including 13 gold, 17 silver and 9 bronze and one of those silver medals was won by judoka Yamini Mourya.
Yamini, who hails from Bhiwani in Haryana, won the silver medal in women’s 57kg category after losing the final to England’s Acelya ToprakThe silver medal came after two historic gold medals for India in judo which were won by Asmita Dey and Harsh Singh.
The 28-year-old, who trains at Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS), spoke to India.com website and recalled her earliest memories of Independence Day as well as some of the greatest sporting achievements of independent India.
“My earliest memory celebrating Independence Day is when I was in schools and on that day, my whole school used to have dancing and musical programApart from that we also had special parade organised on the day,” Yamini Mourya told India.com.
Yamini is one of the most accomplished light-weight judokas in IndiaShe was the first Indian judoka in history to win a medal at the FISU World University Games, capturing a bronze in Chengdu.
She is a gold medallist at the 2026 African Open in Dakar as well as at the 2025 Asian Open in Hong KongBut asked about India’s greatest sporting achievement since 1947, Yamini came up with a shuttler’s name.
The CWG 2026 silver medallist counted PV Sindhu’s back-to-back Olympic medals as a remarkable performanceSindhu won the silver medal in 2016 Rio Olympics and followed it up with a bronze medal in Tokyo Olympics 2021.
“For me, PV Sindhu’s two Olympic medals is the greatest achievement of our independent India,” Yamini said confidently.
India’s medal march continues!
Yamini Mourya bags Silver in the Women’s 57kg Judo event at #Glasgow2026.#CWG2026 #Cheer4Bharat #TeamIndia @WeAreTeamIndia pic.twitter.com/qImrozHiEd
— Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (@MIB_India) August 1, 2026
Whole city celebrate 2011 ODI World Cup win: Yamini Mourya
But when asked about a lasting sporting memory, Yamini recalled that it was from the cricket field“My most memorable sporting memory is when India wins World Cup in 2011 and my whole city celebrating with crackers,” Yamini said.
Team India had won the 2011 ODI World Cup under the captaincy of MS Dhoni with a win over Sri Lanka in the finalIt was India’s second ODI World Cup and first after 28 years.
Asked about what India should do to become the next sporting powerhouse before India’s 100th Independence Day, Yamini said, “I think we should start talent search in schools at very young ageAnd we should normalise the international camps and investing in sports scienceWe should have more qualified coaches in India because coaches are backbone of athlete, and sports should be compulsory in every schools and colleges.”
Yamini said that the confidence of winning a silver medal at the CWG 2026 in Glasgow will hold her in good stead as she aims for Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 next.
“I competed against some of the best judokas in Commonwealth GamesThere were Olympic medallists, world champions in Glasgow and performing against them gave me huge confidenceWhen I head to LA Olympics in 2028, I won’t carry the same pressure because if believe I can compete with the bestI believe winning an Olympics medal from judo is not impossible,” Yamini said.
India will celebrate their 80th Independence Day on Saturday, August 15.
