19th Asian Games (of 2022, held in 2023) came to a close at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium (also called Big Lotus) in China. Hockey player PR Sreejesh was India’s flagbearer at the parade of athletes.The 20th Asian Games will be held in Japan in 2027.
Highlights of Asian Games 2023
India’s Milestones
- With an unprecedented haul of 107 medals (28 gold, 38 silvers and 41 bronze), India set a new benchmark for themselves at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China.
- At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, India performed well and returned with 70 medals, including a haul of 16 gold medals.
- It was the first time in Asian Games history that India’s medals tally crossed the three-figure mark. By doing so, they became the only fourth country after China (383), Japan (188) and the Republic of Korea (190) to win 100 or more medals in a single edition of the Asian Games.
Athletes Performance
- Athletics turned out to be the most productive sport with a total of 29 medals – six gold, 14 silver and nine bronze.
Hockey
- The India men’s hockey team won an Asian Games gold and booked a Paris Olympics berth with a 5-1 thrashing of Japan.
- Introduction of New Sports:
- 2023 Games saw two medal sports make their debut: e-Sports and Breakdancing.
- Apart from them, Cricket, and board games – Go, Xiangqi, and Chess returned to Asian Games in this edition after not featuring in the 2018 Asiad.
Players who won medals in Asian Games 2023
1: Mehuli Ghosh, Aashi Chouksey and Ramita Jindal – 10m Air Rifle Team Event (Shooting): Silver
2: Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh, Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls (Rowing): Silver
3: Babu Lal and Lekh Ram, Men’s Coxless Doubles-(Rowing): Bronze
4: Men’s Coxed 8 Team – (Rowing): Silver
5: Ramita Jindal- Women’s 10m Air Rifle (Shooting): Bronze
6: Aishwarya Tomar, Rudranksh Patil and Divyansh Panwar, 10m Air Rifle Team Event (Shooting): Gold
7: Ashish, Bhim Singh, Jaswinder Singh and Puneet Kumar – Men’s Coxless 4 (Rowing): Bronze
8: Parminder Singh, Satnam Singh, Jakar Khan and Sukhmeet Singh – Men’s Quadruple Sculls (Rowing): Bronze
9: Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar – Men’s 10m Air Rifle (Shooting): Bronze
10: Anish, Vijayveer Sidhu and Adarsh Singh – Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (Shooting): Bronze
11: Women’s cricket team: Gold
12: Neha Thakur Dinghy- ILCA4 Event (Sailing): Silver
13: Ibad Ali- RS:X (Sailing): Bronze
14: Divyakirti Singh, Hriday Vipul Chhed, Anush Aggarwala and Sudipti Hajela – Dressage Team Event (Shooting): Gold
15: Sift Kaur Samra, Aashi Chouksey and Manini Kaushik – 50m Rifle 3 Positions Team Event (Shooting): Silver Medal
16: Manu Bhakar, Isha Singh, Rhythm Sangwan – 25m Pistol Team Event (Shooting): Gold
17: Sift Kaur Samra – Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (Shooting): Gold Medal
18: Aashi Chouksey – Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (Shooting): Bronze
19: Angad, Gurjot and Anant win – Men’s Skeet Team Event (Shooting): Bronze
20: Vishnu Sarvanan – ILCA7 (Sailing): Bronze
21: Isha Singh, Women’s 25m Pistol (Shooting): Silver
22: Anant Jeet Singh, Men’s Skeet (Shooting): Silver
23. Roshibina Devi Wushu (60 kg): Silver
24: Arjun Cheema, Sarabjot Singh and Shiv Narwal – Men’s 10m Air Pistol (Shooting): Gold
25. Anush Aggarwala, Dressage Individual (Equestrian): Bronze
26: Isha Singh, Divya TS and Palak Gulia – Women’s 10m Air Rifle Team Event (Shooting): Silver
27: Aishwarya Tomar, Akhil Sheoran and Swapnil Kusale – Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions Team Event (Shooting): Gold
28: Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni – Men’s Doubles (Tennis): Silver
29: Palak Gulia – Women’s 10m Air Pistol (Shooting): Gold
30: Isha Singh- Women’s 10m Air Pistol (Shooting): Silver
31: Women’s Team Event (Squash): Bronze
32: Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar – Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (Shooting): Silver
33: Kiran Baliyan (Shot Put): Bronze
34: Sarabjot Singh and Divya TS – 10m Air Pistol Mixed Event (Shooting): Silver
35. Rohan Bopanna and Rutuja Bhosle, Mixed Doubles (Tennis): Gold
36. Men’s Team (Squash): Gold
37. Karthik Kumar Men’s 10 thousand meters (Athletics): Silver
38. Gulveer Singh- Men’s 10 thousand meters (Athletics): Bronze
39. Aditi Ashok (Golf): Silver
40. Rajeshwari Kumari, Manisha Keer and Preeti Rajak – Women’s Team Event Trap (Shooting): Silver
41. Kayan Chenai, Prithviraj Tondaiman and Zorawar Singh – Men’s Team Event Trap (Shooting): Gold
42. Kayan Chenai – Men’s Trap (Shooting): Bronze
43. Nikhat Zareen- Boxing: Bronze
44. Avinash Sable- Steeplechase: Gold
45. Tejinder Pal Toor- Shot Put: Gold
46. Harmilan Bains- 1500m: Silver
47. Ajay Kumar- 1500 meters: Silver
48. Jinson Johnson- 1500m: Bronze
49. Murali Sreeshankar- Long Jump: Silver
50. Nandini Agasara- Long Jump: Silver
51. Seema Punia- Discus Throw: Bronze
52. Jyoti Yaraji- 100m Hurdle: Silver
53. Men’s Team Event (Badminton): Silver
54. Women’s 3000m Relay Team (Roller Skating): Bronze
55. Men’s 3000m Relay Team (Roller Skating): Bronze
56. Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ahika Mukherjee (Table Tennis): Bronze
57. Parul Chaudhary (3000m steeplechase): Silver
58. Preeti (3000m steeplechase): Bronze
59. Ansi Sojan (Long Jump): Silver
60. Indian Team (4*400 Relay): Silver
61. Arjun Singh and Sunil Singh (Canoeing Doubles): Bronze
62. Preeti Pawar (54 kg: Boxing): Bronze
63. Vithya Ramraj (400M, Hurdles): Bronze
64: Parul Chaudhary (5000m): Gold
65. Mohammad Afsal (800 meters): Silver
66. Praveen Chitravel (Triple Jump): Bronze
67: Tejaswin Shankar Decathlon: Silver
68: Annu Rani (Javelin Throw): Gold
69. Narendra (Boxing: 92KG): Bronze
70: Manju Rani and Ram Babu (35 km race walk mixed team event): Bronze
71: Jyothi Venam Ojas Devtale (Compound Archery: Mixed Team Event): Gold
72: Anahat Singh- Abhay Singh (Squash Mixed Doubles): Bronze
73: Parveen Hooda (Boxing 54-57 kg): Bronze
74: Lovlina Borgohain (Boxing 66-75 KG): Silver
75: Sunil Kumar (Wrestling): Bronze
76: Harmilan Bains (800m race): Silver
77: Avinash Sable (5000 meter race): Silver
78: Women’s Team (4×400 Relay Race): Silver
79: Neeraj Chopra (Javelin): Gold
80: Kishore Jenna (Javelin): Silver
81: Men’s Team (4×400 Relay Race): Gold
82: Archery Compound Event (Aditi-Jyoti Preneet): Gold
83: Deepika Pallikal- Harinder Pal Sandhu (Squash Mixed Doubles): Gold
84: Abhishek Verma, Ojas Deotale, Prathamesh Javkar (Archery: Men’s Compound Team Event): Gold
85. Saurav Ghoshal, Men’s Singles (Squash): Silver
86. Final Panghal (Wrestling): Bronze
87. Archery (Women’s Recurve Team: Ankita Bhakat, Simranjit Kaur Bhajan Kaur): Bronze
88. HS Prannoy (Badminton): Bronze
89. Sepak Takra (Women): Bronze
90. Atanu Das, Dheeraj and Tushar Shelke – Men’s Recurve (Archery): Silver
91. Sonam Malik (Wrestling): Bronze
92. Kiran Bishnoi (Wrestling): Bronze
93. Aman Sehrawat (Wrestling): Bronze
94. Men’s Team (Bridge): Silver
95. Men’s Hockey Team: Gold
96. Aditi Swami (Compound Archery): Bronze
97: Jyoti Vennam (Compound Archery): Gold
98. Ojas Devtale (Compound Archery): Gold
99. Abhishek Verma (Compound Archery): Silver
100. Women’s Kabaddi Team: Gold
101. Satwik-Chirag (Badminton men’s doubles event): Gold
102.Indian men’s cricket team: Gold
103. Indian Men’s Kabaddi Team: Gold
104. Indian women’s hockey team: Bronze
105. Deepak Punia (86 kg weight category): Silver
106. Indian women’s chess team: Silver
107. Indian men’s chess team: Silver
Asian Games
- The Asian Games is the biggest sports competition in Asia, held once every four years. The symbol for the Asian Games is the rising sun with interlocking rings.
- It is recognised by the International Olympic Committee.
- After the Second World War, many Asian countries gained independence and the Indian International Olympic Committee proposed the idea of Asian Games as a sporting event, where all Asian nations can be represented.
- The first-ever Asian Games were held in New Delhi in 1951.
- Asian Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation from 1951 to 1978. Since 1982, the Olympic Council of Asia has regulated the Asian Games.
India as a Host
- India is a founder member of Asian Games and also the host of the first Asian Games.
- The 9th edition of the Asian Games was also held in New Delhi in November and December 1982.
- Appu, the Indian elephant, was the first mascot to be used for the Asian Games.