After the full-fledged logistical disaster, the Asian Games in Nagoya are facing another potential disruption. A major typhoon threatens to hit the Aichi-Nagoya coast in the next few days, which could derail the competition further.
Organisers have already been dealing with a major accommodation controversy involving athletes and officials arriving for the 2026 Asian Games. Now, authorities have warned that athletes could be temporarily evacuated if the 100 kmph winds lash out at the coastal city.
Tropical storm Dujuan was moving towards central Japan on Thursday, with maximum sustained winds of around 90 kmph and gusts of up to 126 kmph. The storm could approach the Aichi-Nagoya region on September 21, two days after the Games officially open on Saturday.
Nagoya Mayor Ichiro Hirosawa, who is also the deputy president of the Games, said the competition would continue under normal rainy conditions. However, he warned that emergency measures would be triggered if torrential rain led to evacuation alerts.
“Under normal rainy conditions, the Games will carry on as usual,” Hirosawa told Reuters.
“However, in the event of torrential rain that triggers emergency alerts, we will arrange for the athletes to evacuate temporarily.”
The authorities also have a contingency plan for the Costa Serena, the Italian cruise ship that has been brought in to accommodate thousands of athletes and officials. If the winds reach typhoon strength, the ship will leave the dock and move offshore to safer waters.
“Additionally, if we encounter typhoon-level strong winds, the cruise ship will move offshore. We already have clear protocols in place for situations like these,” Hirosawa said.
TORRENTIAL RAINFALL IN NAGOYA
The threat comes only days after Nagoya was hit by torrential rain that flooded parts of the city and forced several hundred athletes and officials to temporarily evacuate their accommodation. Some competitions were also delayed or postponed because of the severe weather.
With the Games now just hours away from their official opening, the latest weather threat adds another complication to an event that has already faced questions over how it is housing its unusually large contingent.
WHAT CAUSED THE HOTEL CONTROVERSY
Meanwhile, the Aichi-Nagoya Games have gotten off to the worst possible start, with numerous athletes hit by unprecedented delays.
While South Korea has complained about the quality of the accommodation, India has hit out at the heavy delays that athletes have faced in finding their rooms.
But what caused the issue?
According to the authorities in Nagoya, the Asian Games were originally expected to have around 15,000 athletes and officials. That number eventually rose to about 17,000 after new sports were added to the programme, putting considerable pressure on the accommodation arrangements.
Organisers had decided against building a traditional Athletes’ Village, with the Olympic Council of Asia arguing that constructing a permanent village would have been expensive and could have left Nagoya with a “white elephant” after the Games.
Instead, athletes and officials are being spread across hotels, temporary shipping-container-style accommodation and the Costa Serena cruise ship. Around 4,000 participants are expected to stay on the ship, while another 2,000 will be accommodated in the temporary huts around the port area.
The unconventional system has already led to complaints. Athletes have raised concerns about cramped conditions and undersized beds, while Team Japan revealed that some male and female athletes, coaches and officials had been assigned to shared rooms because of the pressure on available accommodation.
There were also delays in activating credentials when the cruise ship accommodation opened, leaving some athletes waiting for several hours before they could complete the entry process. Japan’s Olympic Committee had prepared hotel rooms in the city as a backup and was considering using them where existing arrangements proved difficult.
JAPAN DEFENDS ASIAN GAMES ACCOMMODATION
The Olympic Council of Asia has defended the decision not to build an Athletes’ Village, saying organisers had to balance the cost of the Games with what would happen to the facility once the competition was over.
“It’s very easy, you can insist on an Athletes’ Village,” OCA Director General Husain Al-Musallam said.
“You build the Athletes’ Village, you spend such amount of money, and then we need to see what’s going to happen after the Games’ closing ceremony and what’s the utilisation of the Athletes’ Village.”
The next two Asian Games, in Doha and Riyadh, will have traditional Athletes’ Villages. However, Tayyab Ikram, head of the OCA Coordination Commission for Aichi-Nagoya, said such a facility is not mandatory for the Games.
Japan’s organisers have maintained that all 17,000 athletes and officials will have accommodation, despite the logistical difficulties.
EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE PRACTICAL: JAPAN
The OCA’s defence of the accommodation model has centred on practicality, with organisers arguing that building a conventional Games Village for a short-term event could create a much larger problem after the competition ends.
“Considering the cost and size of the Games, we need to be a little bit flexible,” Al-Musallam said.
“Yes, the Athletes’ Village is good to look at. But at the end of the day, we need to be practical.”
Local organisers have also said that they were forced to adjust after the number of participants increased from the original estimate of 15,000 to around 17,000.
“(The choice was) either we sacrifice the athletes, or we pay high costs. So we choose not to sacrifice the athletes,” Al-Musallam said.
“We want every athlete to have the possibility and chance to compete.”
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