2010 Asian Games


The 2010 Asian Games, also known as the XVI Asian Games, was a multi-sport event celebrated in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China from 12 to 27 November 2010, although several events had commenced from 7 November 2010. This was the second time China host the games, in which Guangzhou was the second Chinese city to host the Games, after Beijing in 1990. A total of 9,704 athletes from 45 National Olympic Committees competed in 476 events from 42 sports and disciplines, making it the largest event in the history of the Games. Due to reductions in the number of sports to be contested for the 2014 Asian Games, these Games marked the final time that six non-Olympic events would be held during the Asian Games.
The Games were co-hosted by Dongguan, Foshan and Shanwei, Guangzhou's three neighboring cities. It was opened by Premier Wen Jiabao at Haixinsha Island. A total of 53 venues were used to host the events including 11 constructed for use at the Games. The design concept of the official logo of these Asian Games was based on the legend about the Guangzhou, and featured a stylized calligraphic "Stone Statue of Five Goats in Yuexiu Hill", a symbol of the host city.
The opening and closing ceremonies were held along the Pearl River in Haixinsha Island, and was the first time in history that the opening ceremony for a major sports event was not held inside a stadium. The final medal tally was led by China, followed by South Korea and third place Japan. China set a new Games record with 199 gold medals. Three World and 103 Asian records were broken. Macau and Bangladesh won their first ever Asian Games gold medals. In addition, the badminton men's singles gold medalist Lin Dan was voted as most valuable player. The President of Olympic Council of Asia Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah hailed the Games as "outstanding" and "one of the best ever".

Bidding process

and Amman dropped out before their bids were officially selected by the Olympic Council of Asia, leaving only two candidate cities — Guangzhou and Kuala Lumpur by 1 April 2004. Seoul withdrew after considering the short span of time between 2002 and 2010, as South Korea hosted the 2002 Games in Busan. An inspection was made by evaluation committee, for Kuala Lumpur, from 12–13 April and Guangzhou from 14–16 April 2004. However, Kuala Lumpur was forced to withdraw its bid after the declaration of the Government of Malaysia on 15 April 2004 that it would not support the Olympic Council of Malaysia with a Kuala Lumpur bid due to the high cost of hosting the Games which estimated at US$366 million, leaving Guangzhou as the sole bidder. The Guangzhou bid committee was led by Huang Huahua, the Governor of Guangdong Province. The OCA unanimously selected Guangzhou to host the 2010 Games at their 23rd general assembly session in Doha, Qatar, site of the 2006 Asian Games, on 1 July 2004.

Development and preparations

Costs

On March 11, 2005, Lin Shusen, then party secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China said the Games "will not cost more than ￥2 billion",
in stark contrast to an earlier report, which had claimed that the cost could exceed ￥200 billion.
In March 2009, the director of the marketing department of the Games, Fang Da’er, claimed that the Games were short of funds, due to lack of sponsorship and the global financial crisis. An informal estimate put the Games' expenditure at about US$420 million and revenue at US$450 million.
On October 13, 2010, Wan Qingliang, mayor of Guangzhou at the time, officially revealed in a press conference that the total cost of staging the Asian Games and Asian Para Games is about ￥122.6 billion, with ￥109 billion spent on the city's infrastructure, ￥6.3 billion on the venues and some ￥7.3 billion spent on Games' operation.
The full spending details would be released before 2013, according to the city's finance chief Zhang Jieming. It was later reported that Guangzhou generated US$32 billion debt after staging the games.

Volunteers

Volunteer recruitment program for the 2010 Asian Games began at 9 pm on 21 April 2009 with target of 60,000 games-time volunteers. The volunteers were given green short-sleeve t-shirt, green long-sleeve t-shirt, sport jacket, pair of trousers, hat, water bottle, pair of sport shoes and waist bag.

Torch relay

Two torch designs were short-listed in September 2009 for the 2010 Asian Games. A design named "The Tide" was chosen over one named "Exploit" by the organizers as the torch of the Games. "The Tide" weighs 98 g and is 70 cm long, and is tall and straight in shape, while dynamic in terms of image.
The torch relay route was unveiled on March 4, 2010. Due to financial reasons it remained within the confines of Guangdong province and was planned to travel across 21 major cities of the province. The flame of the torch was lit at the Great Wall of China on October 9, 2010, and traveled around the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. As originally scheduled 21 cities were present in the list of relay, with 2,010 torchbearers expected to carry it from October 12 to November 12, 2010; however, two more cities — Changchun and Haiyang, the host of 2007 Asian Winter Games and 2012 Asian Beach Games respectively, were also later added to the route for a single day on October 15, 2010, increasing the number of torchbearers to 2,068 people.

Marketing

Emblem

The official emblem of the Games was unveiled at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall on November 26, 2006 to prepare the city to succeed Doha 2006 as Asian Games host city. It is a stylized representation of Guangzhou's "Statue of the Five Goats" fused with a running track. The goat, in Chinese tradition, is a blessing and brings people luck while the host city Guangzhou is known as the "City of Goats". The orange and yellow emblem also resembles a flame.

Mascot

The mascots of the Games were the five sporty rams. They were unveiled on April 28, 2008 at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Convention and Exhibition Center. The five rams, including four small with one large, were named– A Xiang, A He, A Ru, A Yi and Le Yangyang. The Chinese character "yang," or "goat," is an auspicious symbol because, when read together, the Chinese names of the five rams are a message of blessing, literally meaning "harmony, blessings, success and happiness".

Medals

The medal designs themed the "Maritime Silk Road" were unveiled at Guangzhou No. 2 Children's Palace on 29 September 2010. It featured the Emblem of the Olympic Council of Asia and Guangzhou's kapok flower on the obverse and the Maritime Silk Road image and the games' logo on the reverse. The Maritime Silk Road image depicts a Chinese boat sailing on the sea, represents Guangzhou as the starting place of Maritime Silk Road, an important commercial center and entrepot of the South China region.

Motto

The official motto of the 2010 Asian Games is "Thrilling Games, Harmonious Asia". It was chosen to represent the goal of the Asian Games which is based on Olympic ideals and values, aimed at creating a competitive atmosphere for participating athletes while promoting unity, peace and friendship among Asian people regardless of differences in race, nationality, religious beliefs and language.

Promotion

Two years before the games, “Road of Asia” tour was launched at Tianhe Sports Center to promote the games throughout the region. A ceremony was held on 12 November 2009 at the Guangzhou Gymnasium to mark the one-year milestone before the Games.

Merchandising

Organizers started selling licensed Asian Games products on 30 April 2008, which was two days after the official mascots were unveiled. On 7 May 2009, Southern Metropolis Daily signed a contract with the Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee and became the exclusive online merchandiser of the 16th Asiad's licensed products.

Music

The official theme song was released on September 30, 2010, and is called "Reunion". It was composed by Wu Liqun, with lyrics written by Xu Rongkai, while the English version was translated by Chen Ning Yang, a Chinese-American physicist, and his wife, Weng Fan. The song was also performed by Sun Nan and Bella Yao. Sun Nan then performed it again with Mao Amin for a music video. The song was selected from a solicitation campaign for Asian Games songs which received more than 1,600 entries. 36 of them were released as selected songs for the Games.

Venues

A total of 53 competition venues and 17 training venues were used for the Games, with four venues located outside of Guangzhou. Events took place at 42 pre-existing venues; eleven competition venues and one training venues were constructed for the Games, while the rest were renovated. Other venues included the Asian Games Town, which consists of the Athletes' Village, Technical Officials' Village, Media Village, Main Media Center and International Broadcast Center.
Organizers revealed that the total investment was over ￥15 billion.
On April 19, 2009, organizers chose Haixinsha Island, along with the Pearl River, as the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies, the only venue which was not for competition purposes.
The athletes village in the Asian Games Town was built on a 329,024 square meters land space which had 3,598 apartments in 49 buildings.

Transport

Guangzhou's public transportation infrastructure was expanded significantly as a part of the preparation for the Games. Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport had been upgraded, in contracted to Crisplant, to support massive volume of passengers. A new Wuhan–Guangzhou High-Speed Railway was opened on December 26, 2009, shorten the travel time between two destinations.
In order to ease the traffic congestion and air pollution, the government ordered 40 percent reduction of vehicles and offered 1,000 buses during the Games and Para Games. The government also had a free-ride offer for public transportation during the month of Games, but cancelled one week prior to the Games due to overwhelming response from the citizens. Instead, government offered ￥150 cash subsidies to each household with permanent residence for commuting purposes.

The Games

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was held on 12 November. For the first time in Asian Games history, the ceremony was not held in a traditional stadium setting. Instead, it was held at Haixinsha Island, using the Pearl River and Canton Tower as focal points. The ceremony was directed by Chen Weiya, assistant director of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and featured a cast of about 6,000 performers. It was attended by the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister of Thailand Abhisit Vejjajiva, Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong Henry Tang, as well as OCA president Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, and Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee. The ceremony lasted for three hours, and together with the closing ceremony costed about ￥380 million.
Athletes were paraded by boats along the Pearl River. The ceremony featured the water-themed arts show and culture of Guangzhou. The last torchbearer, diver He Chong lit up the cauldron, after igniting traditional Chinese firecrackers, whose flare shot up to the top of the tower where the cauldron was held.
The ceremony received positive reviews; Rogge was quoted as considering the ceremony to be "absolutely fantastic", and felt that it demonstrated the city's "ability to host the Olympics". OCA director general Husain Al-Musallam also praised the ceremony, arguing that it was unique and "just better than the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony|Beijing Olympics ".

Sports

476 events were held in 42 sports, including the 26 sports contested at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and additional non-Olympic sports. This marked an increase from the 424 events in 39 sports hosted in 2006. The OCA approved Cricket for inclusion in the main program, while events were also held in dancesport, dragon boat, weiqi and roller sport were also held in Guangzhou. Bodybuilding was dropped following criticism over the quality of judging in the competition at the 2006 Games.
All 45 members of the Olympic Council of Asia that existed as of 2010 participated in the 2010 Asian Games. All National Olympic Committees were ordered to submit their entries before September 30, 2010. Organizers allowed each NOC to submit additional entries and injury replacements after the deadline. After the final registration deadline, some 9,704 athletes, as well as some 4,750 team officials, took part in the Games, an increase of 184 athletes from the previous Asian Games in Doha. According to the Games' official website, Kuwaiti athletes participated the Games under the Olympic flag because the Kuwait Olympic Committee was suspended due to political interference in January 2010.
Below is a list of all the participating NOCs; the number of competitors per delegation is indicated in brackets.
Participating :Category:Nations at the 2010 Asian Games|National Olympic Committees

Calendar

In the following calendar for the 2010 Asian Games, each blue box represents an event competition, such as a qualification round, on that day. The yellow boxes represent days during which medal-awarding finals for a sport were held. Each bullet in these boxes is an event final, the number of bullets per box representing the number of finals that were contested on that day. On the left the calendar lists each sport with events held during the Games, and at the right how many gold medals were won in that sport. There is a key at the top of the calendar to aid the reader.

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony began on November 27, 2010 at 20:06 local time in front of 35,000 spectators. The show began with the theme "Leave Your Song Here", which included music and dance from China, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Japan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. The ceremony featured songs from different cultures– Indian "Saajan ji Ghar Aaye" and "Aao re Jhumo re", Indonesian "Sing Sing So" and Japanese "Sakura". Various artists from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China performed "Triumphant Return", among them were Alan Tam, Leo Ku and Hacken Lee.
After awarding host badminton player Lin Dan the most valuable player award, President of the Olympic Council of Asia Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah officially announced the Games closed. As per tradition, the People's Liberation Army personnel lowers the OCA flag, and carried out of the ceremony venue. Later, the South Korean flag is raised to the South Korean national anthem. The Mayor of Incheon Song Young-gil received the Games flag for 2014 Games to represent Incheon city as the next host. The ceremony then proceeded with an eight-minute segment from Incheon in which local dance troupe "Arirang Party" led by traditional percussionist Choi So-ri in Korean traditional costumes, taekwondo exponents and singer and actor Rain performing the segment. Rain sang 3 songs during the segment which were "Rainism", "Hip Song" and "Friends".
The closing ceremony ended with the flame being extinguished and the song "Everyone" and "Cheer for Asia" being performed.

Medal table

led the medal table for the eighth consecutive time with a new record for the most number of gold medals won in a single Games. This bettered their previous record of 183 gold medals won by China at Beijing in 1990. Macau, and Bangladesh won their first Asian Games gold medal from wushu and cricket, respectively. Some 35 NOCs won at least a single medal with 27 NOCs winning at least a single gold medal, thus leaving nine NOCs failing to win any medal at the Games.
The top ten ranked NOCs at these Games are listed below. The host nation, China, is highlighted.

Broadcasting

Guangzhou Asian Games Broadcasting which was established on 31 December 2008 served as the games' host broadcaster, while International Games Broadcast Services, GAB's consultant distributed some of the games' content to right holders. The International Broadcast Center was constructed within the Asian Games town.

Concerns and controversies

Sports

Cricket was among the five début sports in the Games. India, despite its historical record, decided not to send its cricket team to the Games. According to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the decision was due to other international commitments. However, its main rivals, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, confirmed their participation.
In ten-pin bowling, the Asian Bowling Federation decided to compete the Games behind closed doors, this resulted in protests from many delegates.
On November 17, Yang Shu-chun of Chinese Taipei, was abruptly disqualified with 12 seconds left in the first round of the taekwondo competition, while leading her opponent 9–0. She was accused of having installed illegal sensors on the heel of her socks. The event quickly turned into an international incident, with officials, politicians and public opinion from Chinese Taipei, China and South Korea trading accusations of manipulation and fraud.
About 1,400 random doping tests were carried out during the Games. Two athletes tested positive; judoka Shokir Muminov on November 19, 2010 and Greco-Roman wrestler Jakhongir Muminov on November 24, 2010, both from Uzbekistan, tested positive for methylhexanamine. On January 24, 2011, the OCA announced another two doping failures, Qatari's Ahmed Dheeb who tested positive for exogenous testosterone metabolites and Palestinian Awajna Abdalnasser who tested positive for 19-Norandrosterone.

Languages

In July 2010, the citizens of Guangzhou opposed the proposal suggested by the city committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference to use Mandarin more in television news programs, rather than Guangzhou's main language, Cantonese. The debates eventually led to a series of public protests.
In late October 2010, in order to protest the government over the language policy in Tibetan area, the Tibetan Youth Congress used the games as a channel to voice their concern.

Environment

Like the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Guangzhou also attempted to raise the air quality of the city. The authority had pledged ￥600 million to fight the problem, and had ordered around 32 chemical plants to stop production by the end of 2009. A report shown on July 13, 2010 indicates that the air quality was rated at 95.07% in 2009, an increase of 12.01% since 2004; this improvement eventually cost authorities ￥24 billion. Subsequent action from organizers to curb pollution included decreasing the movement of vehicles up to 40 percent and banning barbecue stalls in 11 cities.
Between 2005 and 2008 about 150 Guolang villagers survived by growing tomatoes, beans and cabbages while fighting the government for fairer compensation after their homes were flattened for Asian games infrastructure. The Panyu government set aside a date to listen to petitioners complaint on October 18, 2010.
Prior to the opening of the games, Conghua reported 429 cases of Norovirus outbreak. The government officials stressed that the people recovered before November 12.