[Hangzhou D-30]② First AG in 5 Years... Largest Ever Delegation of Athletes and Coaches Dispatched

12,500 Athletes from 45 Countries Participate
16 Days of Competition Starting Next Month 23
South Korea Expects Gold in Archery, Baseball, Fencing
Baduk Included as Official Event for First Time in 13 Years
North Korea, with Sanctions Lifted, to Participate as China Hosts

The opening of the Hangzhou Asian Games is just one month away. Originally scheduled for last year, the event was postponed by a year due to the impact of COVID-19. In its 19th edition, the Asian Games will feature 12,500 athletes from 45 countries under the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), competing fiercely. From September 23 to October 8, champions will be decided across 40 official sports and 6 sub-disciplines, with a total of 483 gold medals at stake.

The Korean national team will send a record number of 1,180 athletes and coaches to this competition. This is over 100 more than the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games (1,044 participants, including 38 from the unified North-South Korea team) and the 2014 Incheon Games (1,068 participants).

Hangzhou AG Main Stadium, where the Summer Asian Games are being held
[Photo by Hangzhou AG Official Website]

The goal is to reclaim 2nd place. Korea consistently held 2nd place from the Bangkok Games (1998) through Busan (2002), Doha (2006), Guangzhou (2010), and Incheon (2014), but dropped to 3rd place behind Japan at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games. At that time, Korea won 49 gold medals, 26 fewer than Japan’s 75. This was the first time Korea won fewer than 50 gold medals since the 1982 New Delhi Games in India, where Korea won 28 golds while competing for 199 gold medals.

This year, Korea expects to win medals in traditional strongholds such as archery, taekwondo, judo, and fencing, as well as in fundamental sports like athletics and swimming. Bowling, which won two gold medals at the last Games, has been excluded as an official sport, but Go has been included for the first time in 13 years, offering additional medal opportunities. Top players such as Shin Jin-seo, Park Jeong-hwan, and Choi Jeong, all 9-dan professionals, will compete. Baseball and soccer will also challenge for consecutive championships following their wins at the previous Games.

For the first time, esports has been included as an official sport, raising expectations for multiple medals. Korea will participate in four of the seven medal events: League of Legends, FIFA Online 4, Street Fighter V, and PUBG Mobile.

There are slight changes in participating countries. While the absence of Russian and Belarusian teams is anticipated, North Korea is returning to international competition. North Korea was suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after withdrawing from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to prevent the spread of COVID-19 domestically. According to Article 27 of Chapter 4 of the Olympic Charter, National Olympic Committees (NOCs) are obligated to send athletes to the Olympic Games. Due to this violation, North Korea was banned from international competitions until the end of last year. The fact that the Games are held in China, a friendly nation, appears to have influenced North Korea’s decision to participate. North Korea is expected to target medals in its strong events such as women’s wrestling and weightlifting. At the last Games, North Korea ranked 10th overall with 12 gold medals.

The Hangzhou Games mark the third time China has hosted the Asian Games. The event will be held across six cities in Zhejiang Province: Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing, and Jinhua. The Games’ slogan is ‘Heart to Heart, @Future (心心相融, @未來),’ meaning ‘When hearts connect, the future opens.’ The mascots are three robots named Chongchong (琮琮), Lianlian (蓮蓮), and Chencheng (宸宸), symbolizing three world cultural heritage sites in Hangzhou.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.