19th Asian Games Preview – Hangzhou 2023

September 6, 2023

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19th Asian Games Preview – Hangzhou 2023

The 19th Asian Games will take place in Hangzhou, China on the 23rd of September to 8th October 2023. Originally these games were scheduled for 10th to 25th September 2022 but due to the COVID pandemic the Games were rescheduled to this year. This will be the third time that China will host the Asian Games following Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010.

Surprisingly when the official bidding for the 2022 Games were opened, Hangzhou was the only city to declare it’s interest in hosting the Games. Hangzhou were officially awarded the hosting rights in 2015 and has since then started preparing for the Games.

The Hangzhou 2022 Organising Committee (HAGOC) issued a mascot design challenge which received 4,633 submissions. The final winning robot mascot designs were created by Zhang Wen and Yang Hongyi who are lectures from the China Academy of Art.

The 3 mascots are sporty robots and known as the ‘smart triplets’. Congcong, Lianlian and Chenchen each represent a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Hangzhou. Robot number one, Congcong represent the archaeological ruins of Liangzhu City.

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The name comes from the Cong jade pendant which is a relic that was unearthed from the Liangzhu City ruins 5,000 years ago. Congcong is yellow as is the jade pendant.

The second robot is Lianlian which represents West Lake as the name Lianlian signifies a lake full of lotus leaves. Lianlian is green to stand for both life and nature which is related to West Lake.

The third and final mascot is Chenchen which represents the Grand Canal which runs from Beijing and finishes in Hangzhou. The name is derived from the Gongchen Bridge which is a landmark structure on the Hangzhou side of the Grand Canal. Chenchen is blue to represent science and technology.

The opening ceremony of the Games will take place on September 23, but some events such as cricket and football will start before that on the 19th. There will be a total of 40 sports contested which includes ‘core’ sports which will feature in the 2024 Paris Olympics, e-Games and non-Olympic sports.

All 45 members of the Olympic Council of Asia are expected to send delegations to the Games with host China expected to have the biggest delegation. China, Japan and South Korea are expected to be the top 3 nations in the medal tally as per what transpired in the 2018 Games in Jakarta-Palembang, Indonesia.

23 teams will participate in the Men’s Football tournament with Japan, Iran and South Korea starting as pre-tournament favourites. The Men’s Cricket tournament will feature 15 teams that are seeded based on ICC World rankings. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh all have automatic qualification into the quarterfinals and will be one win away from a medal.

Swimming and athletics offer the most medals in the various disciplines. Swimming offers 57 medal events which include artistic swimming, diving, marathon swimming, swimming and water polo. Athletics on the other hand offers 48 medal events and based on previous Games both these two sports will be the most watched of the Games.

All of Asia will be watching the Games with excitement and will be rooting for their country with hope and encouragement.