Neeraj Yadav, the Indian para-athlete who won three gold medals at the Asian Para Games, has died at the age of 42. He was found dead at his flat in Delhi on Tuesday, October 27, 2026.
He won gold in the javelin and discus across two editions of the Asian Para Games, competing from a wheelchair after contracting polio as a child.
From wheelchair tennis to the throwing circle
Yadav was born in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, on February 10, 1984. Polio left him with paralysis from the age of seven, and he used a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He first competed in wheelchair tennis, which he played for about seven years, before turning to field events in 2015.
His breakthrough came at the Delhi State Athletics Meet that year, where he won the shot put, javelin and discus. He was soon in the national squad and in 2016 won silver at the Fazza Grand Prix in Dubai.
Asian Para Games champion
At the 2018 Asian Para Games in Jakarta he won gold in the men’s F55 javelin with a throw of 29.84 metres, an Asian record. The F55 class is for athletes who compete seated.
He went on to win two more golds at the 2022 Asian Para Games, held in Hangzhou, China, in October 2023: the discus in the combined F54/55/56 class and the F55 javelin. In 2022 he also won gold at the Marrakech Para Athletics Grand Prix in Morocco, setting an Indian national record.
What officials said
India’s national chief para-athletics coach, S. Satyanarayana, told the news agency IANS that Yadav had taken his own life at his flat, calling his death “extremely unfortunate and tragic”. He said the reason had yet to be established. A post-mortem examination was carried out at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Delhi, and authorities had not released further details.
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