Answers: Sport and Politics at the Asian Games
I had posted this quiz in October 2023 but got delayed with the answers. Here they are finally.
Answers
1) Three athletes from an Indian state could not travel to China to compete in wushu, as they were issued stapled visas by China and not stamped ones (India does not accept stapled visas as valid). Which Indian state and what’s behind this?
Arunachal Pradesh. China claims the northeastern state of India as its territory and refers to it as ‘South Tibet’. More on the long-running border dispute and how British colonial policies stoked it here. The two countries fought a brief border war in 1962 that China won. A U.S. perspective on the conflict here.
2) The world leaders attending the opening ceremony at Hangzhou included a president who was visiting a country outside the Middle East and Russia for the first time since 2011. Who and which country?
Bashar Al Assad, Syria. More here, here and here.
3) Two sets of athletes under different flags have been competing on behalf of which country at this year’s Asian Games?
Afghanistan. The Taliban sent an all-male team while a team of Afghan diaspora athletes that included women competed under the flag of the government toppled by the Taliban in August 2021. More here and here.
4) This country was suspended by the International Olympic Committee after refusing to allow Israel and Taiwan to take part in the Asian Games it hosted. Its sports minister denounced the Olympics as an “imperial tool”. The country, backed by Beijing, instituted the Games of the Newly Emerging Forces (GANEFO) as a counter to the Olympics. 42 countries took part in the first GANEFO in 1963 but the fear of being barred from the Olympics meant none sent an official team. This event was regarded as the biggest threat to the Olympics but collapsed after the country’s leadership changed and the new government fell out with China. Which country?
Indonesia, host of the 1962 Asian Games. More here and here. India pushed back against Indonesia’s decision to block Israel and Taiwan from the Asian Games. In the subsequent backlash, India’s embassy was stormed by a mob. This backlash and the disastrous war with Communist China just over a month later in 1962 prompted India to play a crucial role in the IOC’s efforts to thwart GANEFO. Indonesia itself lost interest after the fall of Sukarno and his replacement by Suharto, who adopted a pro-Western, anti-Communist stance.
5) This country’s capital was due to host the Asian Games in 1970 but pulled out amid security concerns surrounding its neighbour. In January 1968, commandos from the neighbouring country were just 300 metres away from the presidential palace when they were intercepted. Thailand and Bangkok stepped in for the second straight time. The country that dropped out paid substantial funds to Thailand. Which country and city dropped out?
South Korea and Seoul. More about North Korea’s assassination plot here, here, here and here.
6) This country last took part in the Asian Games in 1974. The Asian Games Federation barred it from competing in 1978 citing security reasons. It was permanently barred in 1982. Which country?
Israel. In the 1974 Asian Games held in Tehran under the Shah, Iran beat Israel 1-0 in a tense final to clinch the football gold, a year after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. During the event, Israel was expelled from the Asian Football Confederation following a resolution introduced by Kuwait. More here and here.
7) This country in its first Asian Games appearance in 1994 sprang a surprise in football, defeating fancied South Korea to take the gold medal. Which country? (Correction: Uzbekistan beat China in the final, which remains China’s best Asian Games performance in men’s football)
Uzbekistan. It was the first Asian Games appearance for the five Central Asian nations Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, newly-independent after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. My earlier quiz on the Central Asian states below.
8) This sport played with a rubber ball has been dominated by South Korea since it was introduced at the Asian Games in 1994. It was invented in Japan towards the end of the 19th century, modifying another sport introduced by Western missionaries. Name the sport.
Soft Tennis. More here and here.
9) Which renowned musician composed the theme song ‘Swagatam’ for the opening ceremony of the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi?
Ravi Shankar. More here, here and here.
10) What was new on India’s state broadcaster Doordarshan on April 25, 1982? (At the time it was the only television broadcaster in India). 50,000 units of a particular good linked to this were allowed to be imported. By October 1982, just over a month away from the Asian Games, people coming from abroad could bring the good for friends and relatives. What?
Colour television. More here, here, here, here and here.
11) India’s worst performance at the Asian Games was in 1990 when it won just one gold medal in Beijing. It was in a team sport that made its debut that year. India subsequently won gold until 2018 when Iran took the top spot for both men and women. Which sport?
Kabaddi. More on Iran’s victory in 2018 here, here, here and here. India’s men and women regained the gold medal in Hangzhou.
12) In the summer of 1970 she was the world’s fastest woman. Through June and July she set world records in five events (100m, 200m, 100 yards, 220 yards, 100m hurdles). In December she did win the 100m gold medal at the Bangkok Asian Games but an injury sustained during another race ended her career. She’s considered the greatest Asian female sprinter ever. Who?
Chi Cheng from Taiwan. A panel of European sports editors ranked her the most outstanding athlete of 1970, ahead of Pele in a year remembered for an outstanding Brazil team’s victory at the FIFA World Cup. You can view the race that ended Chi Cheng’s career here. Rohit Brijnath writes here about the brief phase when the world’s fastest woman was an Asian. In recent years Chi has served as a policy adviser to Taiwan’s president and has called for the island’s team to compete under the name ‘Taiwan’ instead of ‘Chinese Taipei’.
13) Taiwan took part in the 1990 Beijing Asian Games under a different name, following an agreement reached with China in April 1989. What name?
Chinese Taipei. More here.
14) Which is the only Asian Games host city to hold the Olympics just two years later? Both events had the same mascot, a tiger cub named Hodori.
Seoul. The 1986 Asiad went ahead despite a bomb attack South Korea blamed on North Korea. More here and here. The Asiad was an effective dress rehearsal for the 1988 Seoul Olympics (North Korea boycotted both events). More here and here. Since then Busan (2002) and Incheon (2014) have hosted the Asian Games while Pyeongchang held the Winter Olympics in 2018. More here.
15) Talal Mansour was the first from his country to clinch gold at the Asian Games, winning the men’s 100m race in Seoul in 1986. He was the fastest man in Asia in 1990 and 1994 as well. Which country?
Qatar. More on Talal Mansour here.
16) Which Indian sprinter, who’s won four gold medals at the Asian Games, now heads the Indian Olympic Association?
P.T. Usha. More here, here, here and here.
Usha narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the 400m hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, a fraction of a second preventing her from becoming the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. The winner of that race was Morocco’s Nawal El Moutawakel, whose achievement was a historic first. More on that in my earlier quiz here.
17) Japan’s Chire Koyama was the surprise gold medallist in women’s table tennis at Hiroshima in 1994, shocking the world number one, China’s Deng Yaping. What was the political significance of Koyama’s victory? (she had won the world championship in 1987 under a different name representing another country)
Chire Koyama is of Chinese heritage. She changed her name from He Zhili after moving to Japan. She had defied orders from her coach to lose to a more fancied teammate on her way to victory in the 1987 world championship. She was left out of the Chinese team for the 1988 Olympics despite her triumph. More here, here and here.
18) What was politically significant about a particular team in dragon boat racing, rowing and women’s basketball at the 2018 Asian Games?
North Korea and South Korea fielded a unified team. More here and here. Unified Korea lost to China in the basketball final. The two Koreas united for the first time in sport after World War II at the table tennis world championship in 1991 and won gold in the women’s team event. The same year a unified men’s football team reached the FIFA World Youth Championship quarterfinals. The two Koreas also competed as one in women’s ice hockey at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
19) Go and Xiangqi are two out of the four sports that come under the category of ‘mind sports’ at the Hangzhou Games. Which are the other two?
Bridge and chess. More here and here.
20) Myanmar won its first gold medal at the 2023 Asian Games in which sport? It’s won four gold medals in the same sport over 2010 and 2014. Overall its medal tally is second to Thailand since the sport was introduced at the Beijing Asian Games in 1990.
Sepaktakraw (kick volleyball)
21) In Hangzhou Hala Al-Qadi became the first woman from this state, which has observer status at the United Nations, to win an Asian Games medal, with bronze in karate. It’s previously won a bronze medal in boxing. Which state?
Palestine.
My quiz on the AFC Asian Cup Football tournament over the past few decades below.