Asian Games stumble before opening with leaks, lost buses

By Hankookilbo

• Published Sep 17, 2026 1:56 PM KST

Athletes face poor accommodations and transportation mishaps as organizers scramble ahead of Saturday opening

NAGOYA, Japan — A representative of a sports federation who moved into the cruise ship athletes’ village at Kinjo Pier near Nagoya Port on Wednesday expressed frustration, saying, “This is my first international competition like this.”

While the accommodations are in much better condition than those at the container-based Garden Pier village, athletes staying aboard the cruise ship will have to spend virtually all of their time living on the water during the Games, while also facing poor access to competition venues.

On the same day, athletes staying at the container village had to make their way to shuttle buses in pouring rain. “Once you step outside the containers, there is nowhere to escape either the rain or the sun,” another sports official said.

The 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Asia’s largest sporting event, are set to open on Saturday, but the Games are already being marred by serious operational problems.

The organizing committee’s unconventional decision not to build a dedicated athletes’ village, citing cost savings and environmental considerations, has triggered complaints and controversy even before the opening, raising questions about the overall operation of the Games.

Heavy rain before opening exposes safety, hygiene concerns

Instead of building an apartment-style athletes’ village, the organizing committee has dispersed athletes and team officials among existing hotels, a large cruise ship and temporary container accommodations.

About 4,000 athletes and officials will stay aboard the Costa Serena, an Italian cruise ship docked at Nagoya Port that is 290 meters long and has 1,500 cabins. Another 9,000 people were originally scheduled to stay in existing accommodations, while about 2,000 were to be housed in containers.

However, concerns over fairness in the allocation of accommodations by sport and country, as well as poor living conditions, have increasingly come to the surface, prompting complaints from participating delegations.

The container accommodations assigned to teams, including South Korea’s men’s basketball squad, are particularly cramped, with shared toilets and showers. Critics have questioned whether the allocation adequately takes into account the physical characteristics of basketball players, whose average height is around 2 meters.

To make matters worse, record-breaking torrential rain in the Nagoya area has raised additional concerns over the safety and hygiene of the container accommodations.

Men’s basketball player Byun Jun-hyung, 30, posted a video on social media showing the floor of a bathroom soaked with water from a leak, appealing for help with the words, “Please save us.”

Even the relatively better-equipped cruise ship village was not free of controversy, starting with a welcome ceremony held upon its arrival.

At the ceremony at Nagoya Port on Tuesday, figures portraying Oda Nobunaga, Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi — historical figures closely associated with Aichi prefecture — appeared.

However, the inclusion of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who invaded Joseon Korea during the Imjin War, drew criticism that his appearance was inconsistent with the international event’s stated spirit of exchange and harmony.

Football teams' buses end up at baseball stadium

The problems have not been limited to accommodations.

There have also been a series of mishaps involving shuttle buses carrying athletes, including buses getting lost or taking teams to the wrong destinations.

On Tuesday, buses carrying the South Korean and Qatari national soccer teams headed to a nearby baseball stadium instead of Mizuho Rugby Stadium, the venue for their match.

The players of both teams eventually had to take the buses again to reach the correct venue, disrupting their schedules and preparations for the match.

Earlier, Vietnam’s women’s volleyball team was also dropped off at the wrong hotel due to a mistake in directions from the organizing committee.

The players and coaching staff had to drag their suitcases and equipment under the scorching sun and walk a considerable distance to their designated accommodations.

The organizing committee has also underestimated the number of participants.

The committee initially expected about 15,000 athletes and officials, but the actual number has risen to more than 17,000. With the Games just days away, the need to accommodate the additional participants is expected to further increase the burden on accommodation and operations.

“This cannot be considered normal Games operations,” a sports organization official said. “There have continued to be various problems, both big and small, with vehicle assignments and transportation operations whenever there are training sessions or official events.”

The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee is also monitoring the situation and working on measures to address the problems.

“We will provide all possible support so that the athletes can perform at their best,” a committee official said.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.