The 2014 Asian Games begin next week from Incheon, South Korea, though for followers from the U.S., things actually begin on Saturday night due to the time difference. That means it’s time for SwimSwam’s Asian Games preview, which will highlight the big rivalries (Sun vs. Park, anyone?), the big races and the big storylines, plus what’s changed since the last Asian Games four years ago in China.
2014 Asian Games – Swimming
- Sunday, September 21st-Friday, September 26th
- Incheon, South Korea
- Prelims/Finals: 9AM/7PM local time
- Event website
- Entry lists
- Meet results
Event Schedule
Sunday
- M 200 Free
- W 400 Free
- M 100 Back
- W 100 Breast
- M 200 Fly
- W 4×100 Free Relay
Monday
- W 50 Fly
- M 50 Back
- W 100 Free
- M 200 IM
- W 200 Breast
- M 4×200 Free Relay
Tuesday
- W 50 Back
- M 50 Free
- W 400 IM
- M 200 Breast
- W 100 Fly
- M 400 Free
- W 4×200 Free Relay
Wednesday
- M 100 Fly
- W 200 Free
- M 100 Breast
- W 200 Fly
- M 400 IM
- W 100 Back
- M 4×100 Free Relay
Thursday
- M 50 Fly
- W 50 Breast
- M 100 Free
- W 800 Free (timed finals, fastest heat at night)
- M 200 Back
- W 4×100 Medley Relay
Friday
- W 50 Free
- W 200 Back
- M 1500 Free (timed final, fastest heat at night)
- W 200 IM
- M 4×100 Medley Relay
Start Times Around the World
Local Time:
- Prelims/Finals: 9AM/7PM (UTC+9)
Asian Games countries:
- Tokyo, Japan: 9AM/7PM (UTC+9)
- Beijing, China: 8AM/6PM (UTC+8)
- Jakarta, Indonesia: 7AM/5PM (UTC+7)
Other countries:
- US Eastern: 8PM(night before)/6AM(UTC-4)
- US Pacific: 5PM(night before)/3AM(UTC-7)
- Sydney, Australia: 10AM/8PM(UTC+10)
- Paris, France: 2AM/12noon(UTC+2)
- Berlin, Germany: 2AM/12noon(UTC+2)
- London, England: 1AM/11AM(UTC+1)
- Moscow, Russia: 4AM/2PM(UTC+4)
- Rio, Brazil: 9PM(night before)/7AM(UTC-3)
Entries by team
Per WSCA News, there are 34 nations entering swimmers at the Asian Games, ranging from China’s 61-swimmer squad to single-athlete teams from Kyrgyzstan and Oman.
Here are the number of swimmers entered for each nation:
-Cambodia (2): 1 male, 1 female
-China (61): 29 males, 32 females
-Chinese Taipei (24): 15 males, 9 females
-Hong Kong (24): 13 males, 11 females
-India (7): 7 males
-Indonesia (6): 6 males
-Iran (5): 5 males
-Japan (38): 19 males, 19 females
-Kazakhstan (5): 3 males, 2 females
-Kuwait (5): 5 males
-Kyrgyzstan (1): 1 female
-Laos (2): 1 male, 1 female
-Lebanon (2): 1 male, 1 female
-Macao (10): 5 males, 5 females
-Malaysia (6): 4 males, 2 females
-Maldives (8): 4 males, 4 females
-Mongolia (9): 4 males, 5 females
-Nepal (4): 2 males, 2 females
-Oman (1): 1 male
-Pakistan (8): 4 males, 4 females
-Palestine (3): 1 male, 2 females
-Philippines (3): 2 males, 1 female
-Qatar (2): 2 males
-Saudi Arabia (3): 3 males
-Singapore (17): 8 males, 9 females
-South Korea (34): 15 males, 19 females
-Syria (2): 1 male, 1 female
-Tajikistan (5): 5 males
-Thailand (9): 2 males, 7 females
-Turkmenistan (4): 2 males, 2 females
-United Arab Emirates (4): 4 males
-Uzbekistan (10): 7 males, 3 females
-Vietnam (4): 3 males, 1 female
-Yemen (2): 2 males
7 Storylines to Watch
1. The long-awaited Sun vs. Park showdown: There’s not a better 1-on-1 matchup at this meet than China’s Sun Yang vs. South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan in the distance freestyles. Both are former Olympic gold medalists, Park in the 400 at Beijing and Sun in the 400 and 1500 in London, and the regional rivalry has been heating up of late thanks to Sun’s TV commercials playfully challenging Park at these Games. Though Sun dominated Park in London, Park has traditionally been lights-out at the Asian Games, winning 6 gold medals over the past two Games.
2. World Record watch for Ye Shiwen? Chinese youngster Ye Shiwen was one of the most shocking swimmers in London, crushing a 400 IM field and the world record with a near-unbelievable final 100 split. Shiwen was her usual dominant self at Chinese Nationals, though she didn’t have to be at her best to win and earn her spot in Incheon. Now, with a full taper and China’s biggest international meet of the year, is it possible Shiwen could challenge her own world mark? She’ll swim the 200 and 400 IMs in Incheon.
3. Hagino’s hunt for hardware: Japan’s Kosuke Hagino is doing his best Michael Phelps-impersonation at these Asian Games, entering no less than 6 individual events. Amazingly, the versatile swimmer is a threat to medal in all 6. Hagino won double gold medals at the Pan Pacific Championships in Australia, beating out American and Australian fields in the 200 and 400 IMs that should be tougher than what he’ll face here. Hagino’s also in the 100 and 200 backstroke, where he’ll face countryman Ryosuke Irie, plus joins the 200 and 400 free horserace with Sun and Park. Throwing in relays, Hagino has a chance to win an absurd amount of medals at this year’s Games.
4. Don’t sleep on Singapore: Though China, Japan and South Korea tend to grab most of the medals in the pool portion of the Asian Games, Singapore is a tough, if not-very-deep, country in the water as well. Tao Li was one of just two non-Chinese women to win gold in 2010, and she returns to defend her 50 fly title. Meanwhile Joseph Schooling, the American-based youngster who rose to silver medal status at the Commonwealth Games (Singapore’s first Commonwealth Games swimming medal), will enter the 100 and 200 fly plus the 200 IM as he continues to establish himself on the international level.
5. Feeling right at home: Park Tae-hwan should be feeling like a VIP next week. Not only will he be competing in front of his home fans – in South Korea, where Park is the nation’s biggest swimming celebrity ever – Park also has a special claim to the pool: his name’s on the building. South Korea built a brand-new facility for these Asian Games, the Munhak Park Tae-hwan Aquatics Center. Park is the kind of celebrity in Korea that Kosuke Kitajima once was to Japan, a figure beloved well outside of just the swimming community. He’s won three golds and a silver individually at each of the past two Asian Games, and he’s got a shot to medal in four individual races next week.
6. Xu and Irie clash for backstroke supremacy: Japan’s Ryosuke Irie has been one of the world’s top backstrokers for a good while now, helping Japan rule the stroke in Asian competition. But China has started to creep into contention, and Xu Jiayu‘s gigantic swim at Chinese Nationals was enough to rattle the backstroking ranks of the entire world. In fact, Xu’s 52.34 held up as the fastest 100 back in the world over the summer, faster than the winners of Pan Pacs, European Championships and U.S. Nationals. Now Jiayu will meet Irie, the Pan Pacs champ, for the first time since his big breakout as the two spar for the title of top backstroker in Asia and the world.
7. Just how strong are the Chinese women? In 2010, China absolutely crushed the competition on the women’s side of the Asian Games. The Chinese took gold medals in every single event but two, and only missed out on those two races by a combined total of .44 seconds. As the nation continues to rise on the swimming scene (cue “chinesesupreme” in the comments section), more and more elite young athletes are showing up in the pool. The toughest challenges to the Chinese dominance will probably come in the breaststroke events, where Japan has a tough trio of Kanako Watanabe, Satomi Suzuki and Rie Kaneto coming off of strong seasons.
Point #4. Tao Li is actually from China 🙂
Goasia – Tao was born in China, but is Singaporean, and has competed for Singapore her entire international career.
Interested to see if Jiayu will continue to wow us all. I hope he goes under 1:54 in the 200 to challenge Irie.
Also – how low can Koseki go? 2 Pan Pac victories, but he’ll be in his prime for this.
I’d disagree somewhat with Chinesesupreme. I don’t think – especially on the men’s side – that events are as locked down as you’d think.
For example, in the 50m, we still haven’t seen what a fully tapered Shinri Shioura will be able to do. He is the current Asian record holder, and it will be a good fight to see him take on Ning Zetao and Yu Hexin.
As for Hagino and the 400m – I don’t think that a medal is an automatic lock, Sven. Hao Yun at the National Games last year swam a 3:44 as well, and he is still very young and improving. Unless Hagino can drop significantly below his current best of 3:43.9, he won’t… Read more »
Ah, good call, I’d overlooked him!
Well, one more reason why I wish he’d have entered the 100 free!
I’m not sure what else Ye Shiwen needs to prove herself for. She was world champion, double asian games champion at the age of 14, double olympics champion and world record holder.
It’s like saying Missy Franklin needed to prove herself in the Pan Pacs.
doesnt make sense.
Aswimfan, I was thinking the same thing, but I figured he meant, “…prove herself this season”, because I don’t think she has a leading time in the 200 IM yet and has gone faster in the 400 IM in the past.
Well, she has worlds leading time in 400 IM. And the 400 IM is always what people are focusing on Ye Shiwen after her stunning London’s win.
Again, just because Ye Shiwen has not swum worlds leading time in one event, 200 IM then people would think she still needs to prove herself?
And as far as I know she only swam one 200 IM event this year at BHP BIliton in Australia, and it’s very likely that she will go a lot faster at the Asian Games than the 2:10 if she’s healthy.
Missy Franklin is at #6 and #3 on 200 back and 100 back respectively this year, does this mean she has not proved herself?
Let’s… Read more »
I’d argue that Franklin does have to prove herself again come 2015 to show that her relatively poor Pan Pacs showing was not a fluke
Also, small flaw in the event list: It appears there is no men’s 200 backstroke.
You’re correct – it comes on Thursday between the women’s 800 free and men’s medley relay.
I am justr considering Olympics events.
Chinese women will win all events but two ( 100 and 200 breast). I believe China is also very competitive in these 2 events ( Shi Jinglin can be a 2:20), but the japanese girls are the favourites; maybe only Moller Pedersen can beat them in 200 and Ruta in 100B.
I can imagine China with the best times in the world in 200 and 400 IMs, 200 fly and 4×200 relay. Many top 5 performances are also to be expected.
Men side:
It will be very interesting to see if China can beat Japan this time. I believe it is going to happen.
China will take gold in 50,… Read more »
Chinese women with the world’s best time in the 4×200???????? not a chance.
I was thinking that too, but then I remembered that the Chinese are so unpredictable, especially the women. Folks appear suddenly out of the woodwork and then fade away, so you never know.
I was almost hoping Hagino would go for the 100 free instead of the 400. A medal in the 400 for him is almost a given while the 100 free is more of a crapshoot, so it’s understandable, but his 48.7 is definitely in contention. Especially if he wasn’t fully tapered at the time.
Skipping the 400 free would give him Tuesday to rest before the 400 IM and 4×100 free relay. As it is now, he’ll probably be tired after that 400 IM and that might hurt his leg on the 4×100 FR. If he swam the 100 free, not only does he have a solid chance of medaling individually, but it would give him a shot at putting… Read more »
any web-casts going to be available?