NAGOYA, September 19 — The Asian Games open here on Saturday with a housing problem the host city has not solved. Temporary wooden container huts built for around 2,000 athletes and officials have drawn sharp criticism over cramped conditions and water leaks, according to state and international reports, and the complaints have not stayed quiet.
Jung Jae-yong, vice-president of the Korea Basketball Association, told AFP the accommodation was the “worst it has ever been.” He added that “athletes who are over two metres (6ft 7in) tall cannot even stretch their legs out on the beds. It’s unreasonable.”
Leaks, floods and a video plea
The scale of the Games is part of the problem. More than 17,000 athletes and officials are taking part, exceeding the initial expectation of 15,000 after the Olympic Council of Asia said in mid-August that teqball and padel had been added, raising the number closer to 17,000. The containers were designed to be reused as disaster evacuation facilities.
They have been beset by complaints. A member of the South Korea basketball team posted a video of a leaking pipe and soaked floor in his room, with the caption: “Please help me.” Athletes were also briefly evacuated from the containers as record rainfall lashed Nagoya last week and caused widespread flooding.
Water leakage was reported in some competition venues too. Jung told AFP that concerns over accommodation were shared by representatives from other countries at the Games. Indian authorities have built replicas of the huts to get their athletes used to living in them.
Organisers acknowledge the complaints
Accommodation manager Yuta Matsuo told Reuters the hosts were “fully aware of the dissatisfaction and concerns voiced by the athlete delegations” and were “taking concrete steps to improve the environment for the athletes.” Unlike the Olympic Games, which usually feature a designated athletes’ village, organisers opted for temporary accommodation. Beyond the container huts, between 4,000 and 5,000 participants will stay on an Italian cruise ship that docked in Nagoya on Tuesday. The rest will stay in hotels.
Hideaki Omura, president of the organising committee and Governor of Aichi Prefecture, previously said authorities had set aside a budget for 15,000 people and had “neither the manpower” nor the budget to accommodate the larger number. The region has hosted before, and the comparison is not flattering.
Nagoya and Aichi last staged a major continental sporting event in 1994, when the Asian Games were held here under very different arrangements. This time the hosts chose a temporary model rather than a village, and the arithmetic of a field that grew by roughly two thousand people after teqball and padel were added has left the organising committee defending conditions on the eve of the opening ceremony.
What to watch next: whether the promised improvements reach the rooms before competition begins, and whether the delegations that raised concerns accept the hosts’ account of progress.
