Athletes ‘can’t take it any more’ as Asian Games issues mount

NAGOYA – The Asian Games in Japan were on Sept 18 facing more accusations of poor organisation, with a world champion gymnast “totally exhausted”, the public drafted in to rescue stranded athletes, and South Korea lodging a complaint about a Japanese warlord.

The continent’s premier sporting spectacle opens in Nagoya and Aichi prefectures on Sept 19, but the build-up has been soured by several issues.

These include a shortage of rooms for the more than 17,000 athletes and officials – a larger number than the Olympics.

Some teams have also criticised the quality of the accommodation, including beds that are too short.

To save money, there is no athletes’ village. Instead, organisers are putting competitors in hotels, temporary cabins and even on a cruise ship. They say these accommodations are safe, cost-effective and comfortable.

Chinese gymnast Zhang Boheng, 26, who won two silver medals at the Paris Olympics and has two world championship titles to his name, said he and some of his teammates were left waiting for six hours after landing in Japan on Sept 16.

“I’m totally exhausted,” he said in a video posted on Sept 17 and shared widely on Chinese social media.

“I didn’t expect that after breakfast at 7am, the next time I could eat would be close to 7pm.”

He said the wait was caused by registration and paperwork before he headed to the cruise ship where 4,000 Games participants will be housed in Nagoya’s port area.

But when they arrived at the ship, he said heavy rain prevented them from boarding.

“A whole day was basically wasted like this,” added Zhang.

“In the end, we really couldn’t take it any more so we decided to book rooms at a hotel to rest.”

The video has since been taken down, but Chinese state media said other Chinese athletes also faced travel delays upon arrival.

Beijing’s consulate in Nagoya contacted Chinese citizens in the area to give the badminton team lifts after issues with a shuttle bus and a shortage of public transport tickets, Xinhua reported.

Chinese social media users applauded China’s athletes, including table tennis star Sun Yingsha, for stretching and exercising at the airport.

The hashtag “Asian Games absurd” has since been viewed more than 94 million times on Weibo.

India’s team faced similar delays at the airport.

“There was an issue in getting accreditation for athletes at the airport during immigration. There were long queues with a lot of other nations there,” India’s chef de mission and Indian Olympic Association treasurer Sahdev Yadav told AFP.

“But these things happen, and we have got everything sorted. These are all teething problems and our focus is now on performance.”

Warlord controversy

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that some of the country’s athletes waited at the airport for more than five hours on Sept 17.

“We are aware of the situation, including reports that athletes have had to wait for hours, and we are doing our best to handle it,” a Korean Sport and Olympic Committee (KSOC) official told AFP.

Also on Sept 18, the KSOC said it had filed a complaint with Games organisers for featuring a Japanese warlord at a welcoming ceremony.

The event on Sept 15 included a person dressed as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who led Japan’s invasions of Korea from 1592 to 1598, and the ceremony prompted a backlash in South Korea.

Historical issues are sensitive between both countries, with Hideyoshi’s invasion a significant episode in Korean history and Korea under Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.

There was no immediate response from the Olympic Council of Asia or the local organising committee. AFP