The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every fourth year among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until the 1978 Games. Since the 1982 Games, they have been organized by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), after the breakup of the Asian Games Federation. The Games are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and are described as the second largest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games.
Tehran is the capital and largest city of Iran and the largest city in Tehran Province. It also serves as the capital of the province, county and the Central District. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most populous city in Iran and Western Asia, and has the second-largest metropolitan area in the Middle East, after Cairo. It is ranked 24th in the world by metropolitan area population.
The 1951 Asian Games, officially known as the First Asian Games, was a multi-sport event celebrated in New Delhi, India from 4 to 11 March 1951. The Games received names like First Asiad and 1951 Asiad. A total of 489 athletes representing 11 Asian National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in 57 events from eight sports and discipline. The Games was the successor of the Far Eastern Games and the revival of the Western Asiatic Games. The 1951 Asiad were originally scheduled to be held in 1950, but postponed until 1951 due to delays in preparations. On 13 February 1949, the Asian Games Federation was formally established in Delhi, with Delhi unanimously announced as the first host city of the Asian Games.
SEA Games, officially known as the South East Asian Games, is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with supervision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).
The Azadi Stadium, opened as the Aryamehr Stadium, is an all-seater football stadium in Tehran, Iran. The stadium was designed by Abdol Aziz Mirza Farman-Farmaian Architects and Associates (AFFA) with other parts of the sports complex based on plans by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, an American architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was inaugurated on 17 October 1971 by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran; it is currently self-owned by Esteghlal and Persepolis. It is also the home stadium of the Iran national football team. It has a capacity of 78,116 spectators, as the result of conversion to all-seater stadium. The stadium is part of the larger Azadi Sport Complex.
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) is a governing body of sports in Asia, currently with 45 member National Olympic Committees. Talal Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah was elected as President of the OCA on 8 July 2023. However, on 30 July 2023, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) asked Randhir Singh, who was previously the acting president, to continue as the Acting President of the OCA, while the IOC investigated the OCA presidential election of 2023. On 13 October 2023, the IOC ethics committee asked the OCA to annul its 2023 elections due to Talal’s candidacy not fulfilling the eligibility conditions defined by the OCA Constitution and election interference by his brother Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah.
The South Asian Games, formerly known as the South Asian Federation Games, is a quadrennial multi-sport event held among the athletes from South Asia. The governing body of these games is South Asia Olympic Council (SAOC), formed in 1983. Currently, the SAOC comprises 7 member countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan participated 4 times in the SAF Games since 2004, but left the SAOC after participating in the 2016 edition and joined CAOC.
The Asian Beach Games, also known as ABG, is a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games have been organized by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). The Games are described as the second or third largest Asian multi-sport event, after the Asian Games. Its popularity is increasing due to the low cost of temporary venues, with beaches and oceans already available, while spectators and tourists are also already available in sand and sea tourist areas.
The Central Asian Games (CAG) is an international multi-sport event organised by the Central Asian Olympic Committee (CAOC) and held every two years since 1995 among athletes from Central Asian countries and territories of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), especially formerly members of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The 2013 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, officially 4th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games and also known as Incheon 2013, was a pan-continental event held in Incheon, South Korea from 29 June to 6 July 2013 that served as a dress-rehearsal for the upcoming 2014 Asian Games, which was also held in the same city. It was the first event to be held under the "Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games" name following the merger of two OCA events – Asian Indoor Games and Asian Martial Arts Games, inherited the edition numeral of the former. Doha, Qatar was initially scheduled to host the 4th Asian Indoor Games in 2011, but withdrawn in June 2008 due to "unforeseen circumstances", with the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) chose Incheon instead as a replacement and postponed the games to 2013.
2009 Asian Martial Arts Games, the 1st and only Asian Martial Arts Games in history were a pancontinential martial arts multi-sport event held in Bangkok, Thailand from 1 to 9 August 2009 with 9 events contested. Due to Political crisis in Thailand And 2009 Swine Flu, the Bangkok Asian Martial Arts Games Organizing Committee (BAMAGOC) and the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Thailand decided that Asian Martial Arts Games moved from the original schedule of 25 April to 3 May to 1 to 9 August. Four years later, the event merged with another Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) event – Asian Indoor Games to form the larger Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.
The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games is a pancontinental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. It is organised by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and consists of Indoor and martial arts events with TV broadcasting potential, some of which were not contested at the Asian Games and Asian Winter Games Programs and are not Olympic sports.
The 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, which is also counted as the 5th Asian Indoor Games, was held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in 2017. It became the third city in the former Soviet countries to win the right of hosting an Olympic Council of Asia-sanctioned event, following Astana and Almaty in Kazakhstan, which jointly-hosted the 2011 Asian Winter Games. The host city was chosen in Kuwait on 19 December 2010. On 6 July 2013 the flag of the Olympic Council of Asia was officially handed over to the mayor of the city of Ashgabat.
The 2017 Asian Winter Games was the 8th edition of the Asian Winter Games. They were hosted in Sapporo and Obihiro in Hokkaido, Japan. These Games were originally scheduled for 2015, however, in the Olympic Council of Asia's general assembly in Singapore on 3 July 2009, the committee decided to move the Games to one year before the Winter Olympics moving forward. The games began on 19 February with the opening ceremony and ended with the closing ceremony on 26 February.
The 2022 Asian Games, officially the 19th Asian Games and also known as Hangzhou 2022, was a continental multi-sport event which was held from 23 September to 8 October 2023 in Hangzhou, China. The games marked the 110th anniversary since the creation of the first continental event, starting with the 1913 Far Eastern Championship Games. The games were hailed as an incredible success by numerous officials from the Olympic Council of Asia and Asian Paralympic Committee.
The 2017 Asian Youth Games were to be an international multi-sport event. Initially planned to be hosted by the city of Hambantota, Sri Lanka, a new host for the 2017 AYG were to be decided at a future Olympic Council of Asia general assembly after Sri Lanka lost its hosting rights. It has now been decided to postpone until 2021 in Shantou, China, but was eventually cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic in China.
The 2024 Asian Youth Games or AYG 2024, officially the 3rd Asian Youth Games and commonly as Shantou 2021, is a cancelled multi-sport event which was intended to be held in Shantou, Guangdong, China in 2024.
The 2026 Asian Games, also known as 20th Asian Games and Aichi-Nagoya 2026, will be a multi-sport event celebrated around the Aichi Prefecture in Japan from 19 September to 4 October 2026. The prefecture capital Nagoya will be the epicenter of the events. Nagoya will be the third time that Japan hosted the Asian Games, after Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994. The event is set to return to its traditional 4-year cycle, after the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China were postponed to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, officially known as the 6th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games and also known as Bangkok–Chonburi 2021, is an upcoming pan-Asian multi-sport event in indoor and martial arts sports held from 21 to 30 November 2024 in Thailand, with its capital Bangkok and the eastern Thai province of Chonburi serving as joint co-hosts.
Mongolia is participating in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia from 18 August to 2 September 2018. Mongolia made its first appearance at the Asian Games in 1974 Tehran, and have a total 137 medals, including 20 gold, 37 silver, and 80 bronze. At the previous edition in Incheon 2014, Mongolia had collected 21 medals, and standing in the 16th position in medals tally.
