China was again the big winner at the Asian Games in Incheon, leading the medal table with 151 golds and 342 overall medals. That was expected, as they've now won the Asian Games overall title for a whopping nine consecutive times. As expected as well, especially as the host nation, South Korea came in a solid second with 234 overall, beating Japan's 200 in third. Unfortunately for fans of sporting diversity across multi-sport events, that positioning matches the last four editions of the Games. Furthermore, Kazakhstan's 2014 fourth-place finish with a far-back 84 overall medals pretty much matches their overall total (within eight) in each Games since 1998. Much like in Olympic Games, where the usual USA, Russia, China, Germany suspects are at the top, it looks like one can expect similar dominance from the Far East nations in the Asiads.
A bigger story coming out of Incheon, though, is the rash of controversies, from doping to questionable judging - and questionable air systems - that seemed to favor the hosts, and continued concern over nationalized 'imported' athletes. To be fair, any large multi-sport event tends to draw a range of large and small controversy, but something about South Korea seems to be bring out a larger share of curious judging incidents, particularly in boxing. Anyone else remember the '88 Games where Roy Jones Jr was 'beaten' by his South Korean opponent?
But I think the biggest story should be the concern over cost and interest, as there were wide reports of empty seats (only 18% percent of all tickets sold a day before the Opening Ceremony??) and rising debts now earned by Incheon to cover the infrastructure cost. A worrying indicator of further discontent is that - does this sound familiar? - Vietnam pulled out of the 2018 hosting bid because of cost, and leaving only Indonesia as the default host. That's a far larger concern, and although athletes may cherish the Asiads as an exclusive opportunity to excel in Olympic-style multi-sport events amongst their regional peers, the rising costs and demands on hosts may prove a challenge too difficult to overcome.
A bigger story coming out of Incheon, though, is the rash of controversies, from doping to questionable judging - and questionable air systems - that seemed to favor the hosts, and continued concern over nationalized 'imported' athletes. To be fair, any large multi-sport event tends to draw a range of large and small controversy, but something about South Korea seems to be bring out a larger share of curious judging incidents, particularly in boxing. Anyone else remember the '88 Games where Roy Jones Jr was 'beaten' by his South Korean opponent?
But I think the biggest story should be the concern over cost and interest, as there were wide reports of empty seats (only 18% percent of all tickets sold a day before the Opening Ceremony??) and rising debts now earned by Incheon to cover the infrastructure cost. A worrying indicator of further discontent is that - does this sound familiar? - Vietnam pulled out of the 2018 hosting bid because of cost, and leaving only Indonesia as the default host. That's a far larger concern, and although athletes may cherish the Asiads as an exclusive opportunity to excel in Olympic-style multi-sport events amongst their regional peers, the rising costs and demands on hosts may prove a challenge too difficult to overcome.
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