TOKYO — The Asian Games are set to go in China, the first multi-sport international event in the country since pandemic restrictions were lifted there about nine months ago.
This giant sports festival in the eastern city of Hangzhou involves more athletes than the Olympics with 12,417 entered, according to organizers.
About 11,000 participated two years ago in the scandal-filled Tokyo Olympics, and about 10,500 are headed to next year’s Paris Games.
Unmatched for size, the Asian Games may even surpass the Olympics for controversy, power politics, and intrigue.
The games begin on Sept. 23 amid an open power struggle between International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and Kuwait’s Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, a long-time IOC member who is often described as the “kingmaker” who helped Bach win election in Buenos Aires in 2013.
Bach is due to step down in 2025 because of IOC term limits and hardball politics are in play around who succeeds him.
In a rare move, the Switzerland-based IOC openly intervened in early July to invalidate the presidential election of the Olympic Council of Asia, which oversees the Asian Games and Olympic sports on the continent.
Tourists visiting the Westlake pass near official mascots of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, on June 26, 2023. The Asian Games open in two weeks, the first multi-sport international event in China since pandemic restrictions were lifted there about nine months ago. Unmatched for size, the Asian Games may even surpass the Olympics for controversy, power politics and intrigue. Credit: AP/Ng Han Guan
The July 8 election was ostensibly won by Kuwait’s Sheikh Talal Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the younger brother of Sheikh Ahmad. The elder sheikh is the former 30-year president of the OCA, an organization that was created by his father.
Sheikh Talal defeated another Kuwaiti, Husain Al-Musallam, the veteran director general of the OCA and Sheikh Ahmad’s loyal aide. Since…
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