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2023 Asian Games


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Hangzhou Asian Games postponed until 2023 over COVID

The Asian Games scheduled to take place in the Chinese city of Hangzhou in September have been postponed until 2023 because of the COVID-19 situation, the governing Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said on Friday.

The 19th edition of the multi-sports Games, second in size only to the Summer Olympics, was scheduled to take place from Sept. 10-25 in the capital of Zhejiang province, some 175 kilometres southwest of China's financial centre Shanghai.

The OCA said in a statement after its executive board meeting in Tashkent that the Hangzhou organising committee (HAGOC) had been well prepared to deliver the Games despite the "global challenges".

"However, the ... decision was taken by all the stakeholders after carefully considering the pandemic situation and the size of the Games," it added.

The new dates for the Games would be announced "in the near future".

"The name and the emblem of the 19th Asian Games will remain unchanged, and the OCA believes that the Games will achieve complete success through the joint efforts of all parties."

Organisers had said in early April that all 56 competition venues for the Games had been completed as the city prepared to host more than 11,000 athletes from 44 nations and territories.

"With the support and guidance of the OCA and the Chinese Olympic Committee, we will continue to do a good job in the preparatory work and believe that the postponed Hangzhou Asian Games will be a complete success," HAGOC said on the Chinese version of their website.

The Asian Youth Games, scheduled for December in Shantou, have been cancelled altogether. Tashkent will host its next edition in 2025.

Shanghai said on Friday it has brought China's worst outbreak of COVID-19 under effective control following a month-long lockdown of nearly 25 million people.read more

Other cities, including the capital Beijing, are facing a wave of additional curbs, frequent testing and targeted lockdowns.

Most international sporting events in China have been postponed or cancelled since the start of the pandemic, with the notable exception of the Winter Olympics, which went ahead in Beijing under strict health controls in February.

The start of the Chinese Super League football competition has been delayed and the matches, should they go ahead, could be played under closed-loop management, state media reported.

Date:May 6,2022

News source:Reuters

Link to this article:https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/games-hangzhou-asian-games-postponed-until-2023-olympic-council-asia-2022-05-06/

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/6/2022 at 2:43 AM, Palette86 said:

They always wanted to do this anyway so that it lines up with the other regional Games which, for some sports (i.e., indoor volleyball), serve as a qualifying for the next year's OG.  But the Asians always stayed in the middle-WC year.  

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  • 9 months later...

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1134932/hangzhou-2022-opening-ceremony-two-hours

it appears that like with Beijing 2022, the Hangzhou 2022 ceremonies will be shortened.

Opening Ceremony will last 2 hours, with the parade being 40 minutes and the cultural segment being 45 minutes (the rest being protocol, i assume)

Closing Ceremony will last 80 mins

Torch relay begins June 15

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  • 3 months later...

The IOC has finally rejected the proposal that would have brought Russian and Belarussian athletes to Hangzhou 2022:

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Russians and Belarusians to not compete at Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games as IOC says plan is "not feasible"

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) voted at its General Assembly in Bangkok in Thailand in July to allow up to 500 athletes from the two countries to compete at the Asian Games, due to open in Hangzhou on September 23.

The IOC agreed to explore a proposal by the OCA to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part in some of its Paris 2024 qualifying events at last year’s Olympic Summit.

The IOC said: "The concept of the participation of athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports at the Asian Games 2023 was explored as discussed at the Olympic Summit in December 2022, but was not feasible due to technical reasons."

An OCA spokesman told insidethegames that there would be "no Russian and Belarusian athletes [at the Asian Games], and it is IOC’s decision, not OCA."

Russian and Belarusian athletes were unable to compete at the European Games earlier this year due to the invasion of Ukraine by the two countries, which began in February 2022.

Following the vote at the OCA General Assembly, Russian Olympic Committee President Stanislav Pozdnyakov downplayed the chances of the country’s athletes competing in Hangzhou, claiming questions surrounded athletes’ preparations as well as the organisational, financial and logistical questions of such a scenario.

The news comes as OCA acting director general Vinod Tiwari held a meeting at the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) headquarters with India’s Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur and IOA President PT Usha.

India’s participation in the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games was among the topics covered with the country set to send a team of 634 athletes.

Looking forward to Hangzhou 2022 Tiwari said: "The fact that our 45 National Olympic Committees have entered over 12,000 athletes is a testament to the athletes’ enthusiasm.

"We’re very happy for Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games Organising Committee that all their hard work and dedication will soon come to fruition and that Asia and the world will witness a special Asian Games."

The Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games are set to run from September 23 to October 8.

Russians and Belarusians to not compete at Hangzhou 2022 as plan "not feasible" (insidethegames.biz)

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For what i'm seeing, it seems there is a mandate regarding how ceremonies are now done in China. From the massive, long ceremonies we used to see from them in the past, to a preset of a maximum of 10-15 minutes of artistic performances. The Universiade in Chengdu did this and, for what i've been reading, it seems to be the same case for Hangzhou.

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3 hours ago, Ikarus360 said:

For what i'm seeing, it seems there is a mandate regarding how ceremonies are now done in China. From the massive, long ceremonies we used to see from them in the past, to a preset of a maximum of 10-15 minutes of artistic performances. The Universiade in Chengdu did this and, for what i've been reading, it seems to be the same case for Hangzhou.

i think it's working well. one of the reasons I actually liked Beijing 2022's ceremonies was that they were relatively short and straight to the point. Chengdu's opening was one of the better ceremonies I've seen come out of China for this and other reasons. there's also the idea that you can't really get bigger than 2008, so might as well start looking for new ways to show off your culture and country without repeating the same things.

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13 hours ago, Bear said:

i think it's working well. one of the reasons I actually liked Beijing 2022's ceremonies was that they were relatively short and straight to the point. Chengdu's opening was one of the better ceremonies I've seen come out of China for this and other reasons. there's also the idea that you can't really get bigger than 2008, so might as well start looking for new ways to show off your culture and country without repeating the same things.

Short and straight to the point doesn't always mean its good. Except for the Ice block segment before the parade, i feel the 2022 ceremony fell really short creativity wise and depended almost completely on the gigantic floor screen... Also they shortened it in 2022 because of different circumstances (the pandemic).

I feared Chengdu would suffer of the same problem...but to be honest despite its shortness, i feel the artistic segment of the Universiade was much better done and devised, with physical performers doing some actual impressive stuff (really loved the segment with the Sichuan opera) instead of depending fully in technology (after all it was the same director of the 2014 YOG).

By the words of Chengdu director, the 10-15 minute mandate (which, btw, it seems it also includes that they can't exceed more than 2000 performers) was to force directors/artists to be creative and make good use of that time. I guess Zhang Yimou isn't someone who is good for those short amount of time limits.

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I dont think any of us need another 1 hour plus 'history of China' extravaganza.... Beijing 08 covered that!

Beijing 2022 was devoid of anything to say really.....a couple of songs about snowflakes, a giant hanging snowflake, kids singing, lots of mascots....it was a real nothing burger when it comes to actual 'content', amazing considering China's phenomenal history and culture.

 

 

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Its very rare from China to spoil so much from their ceremonies when we're still some days to go, but we got pics of how's the ceremony going to be.

http://news.cjn.cn/whpd/yw_19947/202309/t4686511.htm

https://www.ixigua.com/7277113720025664768

https://news.cctv.com/2023/09/10/VIDEKpvxMmlRzN4yCaYhKdsI230910.shtml

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Seems video didn't embed well

Spoiler

 

It looks very impressive though. Its sad they couldn't do something like this for the Winter Olympics. Also seems they really want to beat Jakarta-Palembang ceremony in terms of scale. I appreciate they put a bigger effort than usual for the stage design instead of making it just flat.

Aichi-Nagoya is going to have a very huge bar to surpass (and because of the sh*tshow which was Tokyo 2020+1, for what i'm reading they want to make a more minimalist edition, with the original plan for the Athletes village being clamped down due to the costs).

Speaking of which, they already described their plans for the handover in the closing ceremony (you'll need to translate these articles tho)

https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/aichi/news/20230913-OYTNT50142/
https://www.pref.aichi.jp/press-release/hyoukei20230913.html

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1 hour ago, Ikarus360 said:

Speaking of which, they already described their plans for the handover in the closing ceremony (you'll need to translate these articles tho)

https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/aichi/news/20230913-OYTNT50142/
https://www.pref.aichi.jp/press-release/hyoukei20230913.html

It sounds like it might be more traditional unlike the Tokyo handover, will be interesting to see tho

Does anyone know where / if the Games will be broadcast outside of Asia?

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1 minute ago, Bear said:

Does anyone know where / if the Games will be broadcast outside of Asia?

I’ve been looking for the last two days and haven’t found any info about that. Jakarta-Palembang 2018 had a couple live channels on YouTube, but no evidence of that being the case this time.

With the EOC and PanamSports making their events easier to watch, it seems like a big loss for the OCA not to do the same.

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Opening ceremony producer is none other than Scott Givens himself (FiveCurrents CEO, the people in charge of Atlanta '96 and SLC 2002 ceremonies, and also the 2019 Pan Am Games and the last Asian Games ceremonies in Jakarta-Palembang). There's a new video with an interview with Scott Givens giving more insight about the upcoming show.

 

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http://www.chinanews.com.cn/ty/2023/09-21/10081850.shtml
So I found this and apparently the lighting of the cauldron will be a blend of digital and real life, seeing as they did a virtual torch relay.
Also like Tokyo, the cauldron will be powered by green methanol, a zero-emission fuel made from waste carbon.
The cauldron is called "Tide" and will be consisted of 19 curved pillars forming a surging shape, representing the 19th Asian Games and it echoes the theme song of the opening ceremony called "Tide of Asia". The cauldron's surface will be made from mirrored materials, which according to the organizers, will form a sparkling texture and give off a feel of softness and agility.

The article's in Chinese, but this is what it says when I translated it.

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Internationalal broadcast details of the Opening Ceremony

From Olympics.com:

To watch the 2022 Asian Games held in 2023, you can tune into the various TV broadcasters and on-demand streaming provided by the broadcasters. The list includes:

CCTV in China

TBS in Japan

Sony LIV (Sony Sports Network) in India

MediaCorp Channel 5 and mewatch.sg in Singapore

MNCTV, RCTI, iNews TV, and Vision+ in Indonesia

KBS, MBC, SBS, and TV Chosun in the Republic of Korea

RTM and Astro in Malaysia

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