Asian Games Start Small, Don't Stay That Way Long

(ATR) The Asiad that ends today is history's largest, a spectacle unrivaled by past Games and not likely to be outdone by future ones.

Guangzhou 2010 boasts more than 10,000 athletes across 42 sports and 58 disciplines, huge numbers that somehow still don’t do this marvel justice. Perhaps the only way to appreciate these 16th Asian Games is to revisit the first 15, a past shaped by humble roots but rapid growth.

Today’s Asiad is the world’s second largest multi-sport event, but that hasn’t always been the case. When the Games began in 1951, fewer than 500 athletes from 11 countries took part, modest figures that nonetheless dwarf Guangzhou’s earliest known ancestors.

Only Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong participated in the 1st Oriental Olympics, held in Manila in 1913. The competition continued with the second through tenth Far East Championships up until 1934. The tradition survived two name changes before World War II forced organizers to scrap the 11th Oriental Championships slated for Tokyo in 1938.

Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, India and Palestine meanwhile competed in the 1st West Asian Games in New Delhi in 1934. Like its East Asian counterpart, the 1938 edition was cancelled due to WWII, thus beginning a decade of stagnation for Asian sports development.

Only after the conclusion of the war and the newfound independence of a number of Asian countries did the continent’s focus return to the field of competition.

During the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, a who’s who of sports leaders began discussing how to restore the Far East Championships. His Highness Maharaja Yadavindra Singh felt the conversation did not go far enough. Asia was a single continent that demanded a single Games, the Indian cricketer reasoned, and other sportsmen soon followed suit.

The Asian Games Federation was inaugurated in February 1949 in New Delhi with Yadavindra Singh as its first president. Two years later, the Indian capital staged the first ever Asian Games after delays in preparation pushed the event from 1950 to 1951.

Just six sports – athletics, aquatics, basketball, cycling, football and weightlifting – were contested among Afghanistan, Burma, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan (despite its ban from the 1948 Summer Games), Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. A week later, Japan sat atop the medal tally, beginning a reign that would span the first eight Asiads.

"I was far too young to remember [New Delhi 1951]," says Yadavindra’s nephew Raja Randhir Singh, an IOC member and secretary general of both the Indian Olympic Association and the Olympic Council ofAsia.

"I remember the 3rd Asian Games in Japan. I went with my father and uncle in 1958. So I’ve seen them as a child and as a sportsman, and then I’ve seen them as an administrator over the years. From the 1st Asian Games to now, it has been a tremendous change, and it’s now one of the biggest Games in the world outside the Olympic Games."

Steady progress indeed defined the next 30 years of Asian Games. More athletes from more NOCs competed in more events across more sports. Perhaps the only constant was Japan atop the leader board, always followed by some permutation of China, India, Korea, Philippines and Thailand.

Not until the Games returned to New Delhi in 1982 under the guidance of Raja Randhir’s father Raja Bhalindra Singh did the formation of the Olympic Council of Asia and the emergence of China as the continent’s dominant sports power lay thefoundation for the Asian Games as they are known today.

The 42 sports contested in Guangzhou include all 26 slated for London 2012. The program also includes two that were dropped after Beijing 2008 (baseball and softball) and two that will be added for Rio 2016 (golf and rugby). Bowling, billiards, board games, cricket, dance sport, karate, roller sports, squash and four uniquely Asian sports – dragon boat, kabbadi, sepaktakraw and wushu – round out the program for these 16th Asian Games.

A 35-sport cap approved earlier this month by the OCA means Guangzhou 2010 issetting a record for size that will not be repeated.Of that number, 28 are Olympic sports with seven others to be chosen by organizers. Cricket and karate have already been confirmed for the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, leaving five more to be chosen from the field of sports practiced in Asia.

ATR coverage of the Guangzhou Asian Games

is Proudly Presented by PyeongChang 2018

Written by Matthew Grayson.

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