What's new at Asian Games 2023: Open-water marathon swimming, breakdance, more esports

The seven esports medal events at Hangzhou are FIFA Online 4, Street Fighter V, League of Legends, Dota 2, Arena of Valor, Dream Three Kingdoms 2, and PUBG Mobile. India has sent contingents for the first four events. (Photo by Yan Krukau via Pexels)

Multi-sport events often force fans to Google terms they have not encountered before. Sushil Kumar’s Olympics feats had made them look up repechage. Dipa Karmakar made them search the challenges of the Produnova vault. And as recently as last year, they read up on the rules of lawn bowls after India won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.

During the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games of 2018, the Indian fans were similarly intrigued by a sport called kurash – a Central Asian form of wrestling – after Pincky Balhara won silver and Malaprabha Jadhav bronze in the 52 kg category. India is sending a six-member kurash team to Hangzhou as well.

Indian fans’ curiosity may not be restricted to kurash this time. In March 2023, the Asian Games authorities announced that Hearthstone would not feature in Hangzhou. The news upset some, but fans of conventional sports had to Google to figure out that Hearthstone was a free-to-play online digital collectible card game. The authorities scrapped it because they wanted to keep esports events to seven, a testimony to the rising popularity of online gaming.

The fifth Coordination Committee meeting for the 19th Asian Games held on Mar 16 announces that "Hearthstone" is cancelled as the Games' officially listed Esports medal events which is now reduced to 7 in number.#Hangzhou #AsianGames #Esports #Hearthstone @AESF_Official pic.twitter.com/JkTzj4NPys

— 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 Official (@19thAGofficial) March 16, 2023

The seven esports medal events at Hangzhou are FIFA Online 4, Street Fighter V, League of Legends, Dota 2, Arena of Valor, Dream Three Kingdoms 2, and PUBG Mobile. India has sent contingents for the first four events.

The growing popularity of esports had convinced the authorities to include six events as a demonstration sport at the Jakarta-Palembang Games of 2018. Tirth Mehta finished third at Hearthstone (the event that is being scrapped in Hangzhou), but the results did not contribute towards the medals tally.

Esports are classified under the broad category of mind sports, which also includes Bridge. Pranab Bardhan and Shibhnath Sarkar had won gold for India at men’s pair when Bridge debuted at the Games in 2018; India won bronze for both the men’s team and the mixed team. This time, India is sending a squad of 18.

But perhaps more exciting is the return of chess for the first time in 13 years, after being part of the Games at Doha in 2006 and Guangzhou in 2010. At Doha, Koneru Humpy had won two gold medals – at individual rapid and as part of the mixed team standard – while there were two bronze medals in the latter.

This time, India has an incredible chess contingent, and are likely to win multiple gold medals. Humpy’s teammates include Harika Dronavalli, quarterfinalist at last month’s World Cup; Grandmasters R. Vaishali and Vantika Agrawal; and teenage prodigy Savitha Shri B.

The men’s team is perhaps even stronger. R. Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali’s younger brother who became the youngest World Cup finalist last month, is perhaps the biggest name, but there is also Gukesh D., who became the first Indian to surpass V. Anand’s FIDE rating this month.

The World Cup had four Indians, including Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh, in the top eight. Vidit Gujrathi, and Arjun Erigaisi, the other two, are also part of the squad. P. Harikrishna, the fifth member, is a Grandmaster. It will be nothing short of a major upset if India do not dominate chess at Hangzhou.

Two other mind sports are also returning to the Asian Games after Guangzhou 2010: Go, a board game more complicated than even chess; and xiangqi, sometimes called Chinese chess, the most popular board game in China. India has sent a team to neither event.

Basketball has been part of the Asiad since the first edition, in 1951, but 3x3 basketball – a three-a-side variant with one backboard and a half-court – became an event as recently as in 2018. India is sending both men’s and women’s teams this time, as also for ju-jitsu, a form of Japanese martial arts that became a medal event in 2018.

The Asian Games featured roller skating (artistic and speed) in 2010. Roller speed remained in 2018, while skateboarding debuted. Both skateboarding and roller speed will be there this time: the latter will have a new event, inline freestyle.

In the men’s artistic roller event, Anup Kumar Yama won the bronze twice in 2010.  He won the men’s free artistic on his, and with Avani Panchal, pairs artistic. These remain the only skating medals for India at the Games.

The 2018 Asiad had also witnessed the maiden appearance of sport climbing (a variant of rock-climbing, on artificial surfaces). Having returned home without a medal, India is sending both men’s and women’s squads in 2023.

Dancesport was introduced to the Asian Games at Bangkok 1998 as a demonstration sport. In 2010, there were as many as ten medal events, classified into standard (five dances, quickstep, slow foxtrot, tango, and waltz) and Latin (five dances, cha-cha-cha, jive, paso double, and samba).

China swept all ten golds, while South Korea and Japan shared 17 of the 20 silver and bronze medals. This year, however, there will be only two dancesport events – the men’s and women’s breaking (breakdance). There will be no Indian representation.

Similarly, none of India’s 16 male or 10 female swimmers at Hangzhou will participate in open-water marathon swimming in its introductory edition.

Two rugby events were introduced to the Asian Games in 1998. While rugby union was discontinued after Busan 2002, rugby sevens – a seven-a-side format with seven-minute halves – has been around. India women will participate in Hangzhou.

And despite being the most popular sport in the Indian subcontinent, cricket is still a novelty in several parts of Asia. After missing Guangzhou 2010 and Incheon 2014, India will finally debut at Hangzhou – in both events.