The 19th Asian Games start on September 23 in Hangzhou, China. Some sports have already started. The opening ceremony will be a big show at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium, which can fit 80,000 people. India has 655 athletes in 40 sports, with Harmanpreet Singh and Lovlina Borgohain as flag-bearers. The Asian Games in 2023 will be exciting and memorable, showing the best of Asian talent. Some events are qualifiers for the Paris Olympics in 2024. The Games started with a simple idea in 1948 and have become a big celebration of sports and friendship. Long ago, in 1948, during the London Olympics, people talked about bringing back the Far Eastern Championship Games in Asia, which had stopped ten years earlier because of World War II.China, the Philippines, and India led the talks, and they had a bigger idea: the Asian Games, a huge sports event for all of Asia, including the West Asian Games. This idea became real in 1951 in New Delhi.Since then, the Asian Games happen every four years, except in Hangzhou, which was delayed for a year because of the pandemic. Nine countries have hosted these Games, which are the second biggest sports event in the world after the Olympics. In 1981, the Asian Games Federation changed its name to the Olympic Council of Asia, and its headquarters moved to Kuwait, to work more closely with the International Olympic Committee. From six sports and 57 events in New Delhi, the Asian Games have grown to 40 sports, 481 events, and 41 countries in Hangzhou. Only seven countries—India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Thailand—have been in every edition of the Games. In 2026, Japan will host the 20th edition in Aichi-Nagoya, followed by Doha in 2030 and Riyadh in 2034.
