Chefs de Mission Seminar organized online by the Olympic Council of Asia concluded in 2 sessions on Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th September. The Chefs de Mission Seminar was attended by representatives of the Asian National Olympic Committees as well as from Oceania, who will be competing in the Asian Games for the first time. The General Administration of Sport in China, the Chinese Olympic Committee, future OCA games host cities and representatives of the five co-host cities for Hangzhou 2022 were also in attendance.
The 19th Asian Games will run from September 10-25, 2022, with 40 sports, 61 disciplines and 482 events, including esports for the first time as an official medal sport and also breaking ahead of its Olympic Games debut at Paris 2024, which will be contested in 55 competition venues. There will also be 31 independent training venues.
The two-day seminar covered 15 major topics, including the sports program, Athletes ’Village and five sub-villages, accreditation, ceremonies and security.
Organizing committee HAGOC said that medical experts had attended the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to observe the pandemic counter-measures and that guidelines were being drawn up in cooperation with the OCA for the safety and security of all participants next year.
The Director-General of the Olympic Council of Asia, Husain Al-Musallam, is looking forward to the “best Asian Games ever” at Hangzhou, China in September 2022. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the two-day online Chefs de Mission Seminar on Wednesday, Mr Al-Musallam thanked the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (HAGOC) for all the preparatory work undertaken throughout the pandemic. “I am sure that the organizing committee has done a great job in the preparation for these important games in terms of sport venues, the operation and planning for the best environment for the athletes coming from Asia and Oceania,” he said. “In this regard, I would like to thank all the members of the organizing committee, the volunteers especially, for their hard work and commitment during the past difficult two years where now we see Hangzhou city ready to host the best Asian Games ever.”
The OCA Director-General welcomed the National Olympic Committees from Asia and Oceania, who will be making their Asian Games debut next year, as well as from the organizing committees of future OCA games, and congratulated them on their successful participation at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The President of the Chinese Olympic Committee, Mr Gou Zhongwen, who is also in charge of the General Administration of Sport in China and President of HAGOC, and Mr Zheng Shanjie, President of HAGOC and Governor of Zhejiang Province, also gave a speech at the opening ceremony.
The Mayor of Hangzhou and Vice President and Secretary-General of HAGOC, Mr Liu Xin, provided an overview of the progress of preparations with one year to go and said Hangzhou had the “confidence, resolve and capability” to deliver a successful Asian Games with safety and security as the priorities.
The first day of the seminar covered seven major topics – sports/sports entry and doping control, competition and training venues, accreditation, NOC services, arrival and departure, transport, freight and logistics and protocol.
Hangzhou will be the main sports hub and there will be five co-host cities in Zhejiang province in eastern China: Ningbo, Wenzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua and Huzhou.
Organizers reported that they sent a team of experts and observers to check on the pandemic counter-measures at Tokyo 2020 and will also gain experience from the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics next February in drawing up their own requirements to put in place for the 19th Asian Games, which will run from September 10-25, 2022.
