Asian Games

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Asian Games, also called the Asiad, is a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The games are regulated by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) under the supervision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Medals are awarded in each event, with gold for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition which started in 1951.

Competitors are entered by a National Olympic Committee (NOC) to represent their country of citizenship. National anthems and flags accompany the medal ceremonies, and tables showing the number of medals won by each country are widely used. In general only recognised nations are represented, but a few non-sovereign countries are allowed to take part. The special case of Taiwan was handled by having it compete as Chinese Taipei, due to the political status of Taiwan.

The 15th Asian Games were held in Doha, Qatar from December 1 to December 15, 2006. The 16th Asian Games will be held in Guangzhou, China from November 12, 2010 to November 27, 2010.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Far Eastern Championship Games 1.2 Formation of the Asian Games 1.3 Reorganization of the Federation 1.4 Expansion 2 List of Asian Games 3 List of sports 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Far Eastern Championship Games

Main article: Far Eastern Championship Games

The Asian Games owes its origins to small Asian multi-sport competitions. The Far Eastern Championship Games were created to show unity and cooperation among three nations: Empire of Japan, the Philippine Islands and the Republic of China. The first games were held in Manila in 1913. Other Asian nations participated after it was organized. It was discontinued in 1938 when Japan invaded China, which led to the expansion of World War II in the Pacific.

[edit] Formation of the Asian Games

After World War II, a number of Asian countries became independent. Many of the new independent Asian countries wanted to use a new type of competition where Asian dominance should not be shown by violence and should be strengthened by mutual understanding. In August 1948, during the 14th Olympic Games in London, Indian IOC representative Guru Dutt Sondhi proposed to sports leaders of the Asian teams the idea of having discussions about holding the Asian Games. They agreed to form the Asian Athletic Federation. A preparatory committee was set up to draft the charter for the Asian amateur athletic federation. In February, 1949, the Asian athletic federation was formally formed and used the name Asian Games Federation. It was decided to hold the first Asian Games in 1951 in New Delhi, the capital of India. They added that the Asian Games would be regularly held once every four years.

[edit] Reorganization of the Federation

In 1962, the Federation had a disagreement over the inclusion of Republic of China and Israel. Asian Games host Indonesia opposed the participation of Republic of China (due to the existence of People's Republic of China) and Israel. In 1970, South Korea dropped its plan to host the games due to security threats from North Korea, forcing previous host Thailand to administer the games in Bangkok using the funds of South Korea. In 1973, the Federation had another disagreement after U.S. and other countries formally recognized the People's Republic of China and Arab nations' opposition to Israel. In 1977, Pakistan dropped its plan to host the games due to conflicts with Bangladesh and India. Thailand offered to help and the games were held in Bangkok.

Due to events happened, the Asian NOCs decided to revise the constitution of the Asian Games Federation. A new association, named Olympic Council of Asia, was created. India was already scheduled to host the 1982 Games and OCA decided not to drop the old AGF timetable. OCA formally supervised the games starting from the 1986 Asian Games in South Korea.

In the succeeding games, Taiwan (Republic of China) was readmitted but OCA decided to follow the standards of the IOC for Taiwan to use the name Chinese Taipei. The OCA also agreed to permanently exclude Israel as its member and requested the country to join into European competitions.

[edit] Expansion

In the 1994 Asian Games, despite opposition from other nations, OCA admitted the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan.

In 2006 Australia was refused entry by OCA President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahd Al-Sabah, suggesting that Australia's move from Oceania to Asia would be unfair to the smaller Oceania states.[1]

Cricket will be introduced in the 2010 Asian Games. [2]

[edit] List of Asian Games

Year	Games	Host City	Country
1951	I	New Delhi	India
1954	II	Manila	Philippines
1958	III	Tokyo	Japan
1962	IV	Jakarta	Indonesia
1966	V	Bangkok	Thailand
1970	VI 1	Bangkok	Thailand
1974	VII	Tehran	Iran
1978	VIII 2	Bangkok	Thailand
1982	IX	New Delhi	India
1986	X	Seoul	South Korea
1990	XI	Beijing	China
1994	XII	Hiroshima	Japan
1998	XIII	Bangkok	Thailand
2002	XIV	Busan	South Korea
2006	XV	Doha	Qatar
2010	XVI	Guangzhou	China
2014	XVII	Incheon	South Korea

¹ Originally hosted by South Korea
² Originally hosted by Pakistan

[edit] List of sports

These are the sports that have been and will be played at the Asian Games, with the years they played.

Archery – since 1978 Athletics – All Badminton – since 1962 Baseball – since 1994 Basketball – All Bodybuilding – 2002 to 2006 Bowling – 1978, since 1986 Boxing – since 1954 Canoe / Kayak – since 1990 Chess – since 2006 Cue sports – since 1998 Cycling – 1951, since 1958 Equestrian – 1982 to 1986, since 1994 Fencing – 1974 to 1978, since 1986

Football – All Golf – since 1982 Gymnastics – since 1974 Handball – since 1982 Hockey – since 1958 Judo – since 1986 Kabaddi – since 1990 Karate – since 1994 Modern pentathlon – 1994, 2002 Rowing – since 1982 Rugby – since 1998 Sailing – 1970, since 1978 Sepaktakraw – since 1990

Shooting – since 1954 Softball – since 1990 Soft tennis – since 1994 Squash – since 1998 Swimming – All Table tennis – 1958 to 1966, since 1974 Taekwondo – since 1986 Tennis – 1958 to 1966, since 1974 Triathlon – since 2006 Volleyball – since 1958 Weightlifting – 1951 to 1958, since 1966 Wrestling – since 1954 Wushu – since 1990

[edit] See also

• Asian Winter Games
• Asian Indoor Games
• Asian Beach Games
• Asian Games medal count

[edit] External links

• 2006 Asian Games Doha Official Website
• 2010 Asian Games Guangzhou Official Website
• Olympic Council of Asia

v • d • e Events of Olympic Council of Asia Far Eastern Championship Games Manila 1913 · Shanghai 1915 · Tokyo 1917 · Manila 1919 · Shanghai 1921 · Osaka 1923 · Manila 1925 · Shanghai 1927 · Tokyo 1930 · Manila 1934 · Osaka 1938 (cancelled) Asian Games New Delhi 1951 · Manila 1954 · Tokyo 1958 · Jakarta 1962 · Bangkok 1966 · Bangkok 1970 · Tehran 1974 · Bangkok 1978 · New Delhi 1982 · Seoul 1986 · Beijing 1990 · Hiroshima 1994 · Bangkok 1998 · Busan 2002 · Doha 2006 · Guangzhou 2010 · Incheon 2014 · 2018 Asian Winter Games Sapporo 1986 · Sapporo 1990 · Harbin 1996 · Kangwon 1999 · Aomori 2003 · Changchun 2007 · Almaty 2011 Asian Indoor Games Bangkok 2005 · Macau 2007 · Hanoi 2009 · Doha 2011 Asian Beach Games Bali 2008 · Muscat 2010 · Haiyang 2012 · Boracay 2014 Asian Regional Games Central Asian Games · East Asian Games · South Asian Games · Southeast Asian Games · West Asian Games