2010 Asian Games

Bid

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) selected Guangzhou to host the 2010 Games at their 23rd general assembly session in Doha, Qatar, site of the 2006 Asian Games, on July 1, 2004. Seoul and Amman dropped out before their bids were officially selected by the OCA, leaving only two candidate cities— Guangzhou and Kuala Lumpur. Seoul withdrew after considering the short span of time between 2002 and 2010, as South Korea hosted the 2002 Games in Busan. Evaluation committee of the OCA, headed by the then vice-president of the association Celso Dayrit inspected both the final bidders. Kuala Lumpur was forced to withdraw its bid after the declaration of the Malaysian Government on April 15, 2004 that it wouldn't support the Olympic Council of Malaysia with a Kuala Lumpur bid, due to the high cost of hosting the Games, leaving Guangzhou as the sole bidder.

Marketing

The official emblem of the Games was unveiled at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall on November 26, 2006. It is a stylized representation of Guangzhou's "Statue of the Five Goats" (五羊雕像) 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.

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 (祥), A He (和), A Ru (如), A Yi (意) and Le Yangyang (樂洋洋). 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" (祥和如意樂洋洋).

The official theme song was released on September 30, 2010, and is called "Reunion" (in Chinese, "Chongfeng" [重逢]). 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 (姚贝娜). Sun Nan then performed it again with Mao Amin for a music video.

Financing

On March 11, 2005, Lin Shusen, then party secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) 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 ($18.37 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.

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. Organisers revealed that the total investment was over ￥15 billion.

On April 19, 2009, organisers 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.

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 (former FKI Logistex), 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 ($21) cash subsidies to each household with permanent residence for commuting purposes.

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.

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.

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony officially began on November 12, 2010 at 20:00 local time. For the first time in history, the ceremony was not held inside a stadium; instead, it was held along the Pearl River on Haixinsha Island. 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 President of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah and President of International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge. The ceremony lasted for three hours, and together with the closing ceremony costed about ￥380 million ($53 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 the traditional Chinese firecrackers whose flare shot up to the top of the tower where the cauldron was held.

The ceremony was regarded as successful by IOC President Jacques Rogge who described it as "absolutely fantastic", and said that "Guangzhou has the ability to host the Olympics". OCA director general Husain Al-Musallam praised the Games saying that it was unique, fantastic and "just better than the 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 (Twenty20) for inclusion in the main programme, 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.

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" (凯旋), among them were Alan Tam, Leo Ku and Hacken Lee.

The ceremony also included an eight-minute segment from Incheon with singer and actor Rain performing the segment. The Mayor of Incheon Song Young-gil received the Games flag for 2014 Games.

The closing ceremony ended with the song "Everyone" (每一个人) and "Cheer for Asia" (为亚细亚喝彩).

Medal table

China led the medal table for the eighth consecutive time with a new record for the most number of gold medals (at 199 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 (except Kuwait who competed under the Olympic flag) 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.

Participating nations

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.

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 (CPPCC) to use Mandarin more in television news programmes, 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 (TYC) 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. Later action from organisers to curb the 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.