Revealed On 4 Oct 2026
After two weeks of youthful brilliance on the sphere amid logistical dysfunction and subdued public curiosity off it, the curtain has come down on the twentieth Asian Video games in Japan.
Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) president Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani declared the Video games closed at Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium on Sunday, with the torch handed to organisers of the subsequent occasion in Doha, Qatar, in 2030.
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Some 17,000 athletes and officers got here for the Aichi-Nagoya showpiece – greater than the individuals within the Paris Olympics – with athletes competing in 469 gold-medal occasions spanning Tokyo to Osaka.
The large scale clashed with organisers’ planning for a “easy, streamlined and purposeful occasion” — and the outcomes have been typically chaotic.
Athletes and groups complained of bungled accommodation and transport, prompting repeated apologies from the embarrassed organising committee.
Regardless of the challenges, the video games have been lifted by the performances of teenage titans, led by China’s 13-year-old swimmer Yu Zidi.
Awarded the feminine Most Priceless Participant (MVP) of the video games, Yu is on observe for an enormous Los Angeles Olympics after claiming three particular person gold medals within the Tokyo pool.
She swam the second-fastest time in profitable the 200 metres particular person medley, establishing a battle royale with Canada’s world-record holder Summer season McIntosh.
Her 19-year-old teammate Zhang Zhanshuo turned the primary swimmer to win seven golds on the video games, whereas Japan’s 17-year-old wunderkind Shin Ohashi smashed the 200m breaststroke world file.
Monitor and discipline occasions have been lit up by younger athletes as effectively, with China’s 18-year-old Yan Ziyi producing a world-class throw to win the ladies’s javelin gold whereas 20-year-old Thai sprinter Puripol Boonson swept the 100m and 200m to turn out to be the lads’s MVP.
No video games village
The athletes carried out regardless of regular logistical failures and occasional diplomatic gaffes.
“Lodging, transport and different points — it appears a variety of groups have been affected,” Hong Kong crew chef de mission Wong Po-kee advised the Reuters information company on Sunday.
Organisers opted to accommodate athletes and officers in a mixture of lodges, picket container items and a cruise ship to chop prices fairly than construct a devoted athletes’ village.
They budgeted for 15,000 athletes and officers — about 2,000 fewer than whole registrations — and struggled to handle them.
Waves of athletes spent as much as 12 hours ready to be registered on arrival.
Whereas checking in, some discovered their rooms double-booked or being shared by the improper teammates.
Transport issues dogged the video games all through, with athletes’ shuttle buses failing to show up or taking them to the wrong venues. A number of competitions have been delayed attributable to these errors.
South Korea’s delegation was notably aggrieved, with their crew chef de mission marking the video games’ organisation with an “F”, the bottom grade.
South Korean males’s footballers have been upset when their nationwide flag couldn’t be hoisted for the nationwide anthem on the victory ceremony after they beat Japan for the gold medal on Saturday.
Earlier, the North Korean national anthem was played for South Korea’s males’s hockey crew in one other awkward mix-up.
5 years after the Tokyo Olympics have been staged with out followers attributable to COVID-19 restrictions, Japan’s first main multisport occasion was blighted by poor crowds.
Fewer than 1,000 spectators watched the hosts beat South Korea in a girls’s soccer semifinal at a 50,000-capacity stadium.
A lot smaller venues have been typically practically empty, although many have been primarily based in far-flung areas, making entry a problem.
“If I needed to say, effectively, I don’t suppose it was a hit,” Nagoya resident Naoko Toda, who watched a number of competitions, advised Reuters earlier than the closing ceremony.
Regardless of the problems, the video games’ governing physique OCA declared Aichi-Nagoya a hit and praised organisers for his or her frugal preparations.
China topped the desk with 341 medals, together with 169 gold, with its greatest haul at an abroad Asian Video games.
Japan additionally delivered for followers who tuned in, with 83 gold medals out of 269, smashing its earlier file at Hiroshima 1994.
Padel, combined martial arts, teqball and browsing made their video games debuts in a file 43-sport programme that dwarfed the Paris Olympics.
Qatar is ready to host the subsequent continental video games in 2030, although the OCA could elect to push it again a yr to function the continent’s Olympic qualifiers earlier than Brisbane 2032.
