2010 Asian Games
The 2010 Asian Games, officially known as the XVI Asian Games and also known as Guangzhou 2010, were a regional multi-sport event held from November 12 to 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. It was the second time China hosted the Asian Games, with the first one being Asian Games 1990 in Beijing.
Guangzhou's three neighboring cities, Dongguan, Foshan and Shanwei co-hosted the Games. Premier Wen Jiabao opened the Games along the Pearl River in Haixinsha Island. A total of 53 venues were used to host the events. The design concept of the official logo of the 2010 Asian Games was based on the legend of the Guangzhou's Five Goats, representing the Five Goats as the Asian Games Torch.
A total of 9,704 athletes from 45 National Olympic Committees competed in 476 events of 42 sports and disciplines, making it the largest event in the history of the Games. Due to reductions in the number of sports for competition in the 2014 Asian Games, these Games marked the final time that six non-Olympic events would be held during the Asian Games.
China led the final medal tally, followed by South Korea in second place, and Japan in third place. China set a new Games record with 199 gold medals. China became the first nation in the history of Asian Games to cross the 400 medal-mark in one edition. Three world and 103 Asian records were broken. Macau and Bangladesh won their first ever Asian Games gold medals. In addition, the badminton men's singles gold medalist Lin Dan was voted as the most valuable player. The President of the Olympic Council of Asia Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah hailed the Games as "outstanding" and "one of the best ever."
Bidding process
and Amman dropped out before their bids were officially selected by the Olympic Council of Asia, leaving only two candidate cities—Guangzhou and Kuala Lumpur—by March 31, 2004. Seoul withdrew after considering that South Korea hosted the 2002 Games in Busan only eight years earlier. The evaluation committee of the OCA inspected Kuala Lumpur from April 12 to 14 and Guangzhou from April 14 to 16, 2004. On April 15, 2004, the Government of Malaysia declared that it would not support the Olympic Council of Malaysia with a Kuala Lumpur bid due to the high cost of hosting the Games, estimated at US$366 million, forcing Kuala Lumpur to withdraw its bid and leaving Guangzhou as the sole bidder. The OCA unanimously selected Guangzhou to host the 2010 Games during their 23rd General Assembly session in Doha, Qatar, site of the 2006 Asian Games, on July 1, 2004.| City | NOC | Votes |
| Guangzhou | Unanimous |
Development and preparations
Costs
On March 11, 2005, Lin Shusen, then party secretary of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party 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 the lack of sponsorship and the 2008 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 was about ¥122.6 billion, with ¥109 billion spent on the city's infrastructure, ¥6.3 billion on the venues and some ¥7.3 billion spent on the Games' operations.
The full spending details would be released before 2013, according to the city's finance chief Zhang Jieming. It was later reported that Guangzhou accumulated US$32 billion in debt after staging the Games.
Volunteers
The volunteer recruitment program for the 2010 Asian Games began at 9 pm on April 21, 2009, with a target of 60,000 games-time volunteers. The volunteers were given a green short-sleeve t-shirt, a green long-sleeve t-shirt, a sport jacket, a pair of trousers, a hat, a water bottle, a pair of sport shoes and a waist bag.Torch relay
Two torch designs were shortlisted in September 2009 for the 2010 Asian Games. The organizers chose a design named "The Tide" over one named "Exploit" as the torch of the Games. "The Tide" weighed 98 g and was 70 cm long. It was tall and straight in shape, while dynamic in terms of image.The torch relay route was unveiled on March 4, 2010, and due to budgetary issues and the problems related to 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay, the organizers decided to carry it out on a smaller scale than those carried out previously. 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 on the relay route, with 2,010 torchbearers expected to carry it from October 12 to November 12, 2010. Two more cities — Changchun in Jilin and Haiyang in Shandong, the host cities 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.
Marketing
Emblem
The official emblem of the Games was unveiled at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall on November 26, 2006, to prepare the city to succeed Doha 2006 as Asian Games host city. It was a stylized representation of Guangzhou's "Statue of the Five Goats" fused with a running track. In Chinese tradition, the goat is a blessing and brings people luck, and the host city Guangzhou is known as the "City of Goats". The orange and yellow emblem also resembles a flame.Mascots
The mascots of the Games were five goat rams. They were unveiled on April 28, 2008, at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Convention and Exhibition Center. The five goat rams, four small and one large, were named A Xiang, A He, A Ru, A Yi and Le Yangyang. The Chinese character "yang", "ram" or "goat" is an auspicious symbol and Guangzhou is known as "City of Rams". When read together, the Chinese names of the five rams are a message of blessing, literally meaning "Peace, Harmony and Great Happiness, with everything going as you wish." This represents the hopes that the Games will bring peace, auspiciousness, and happiness to the people of Asia.A Xiang is described as a handsome, stylish, sincere and brave goat. A Xiang wears a blue outfit that resembles the blue ring of the Olympic emblem, symbolizes the ever-running Pearl River and the gentle and kind character and broad and welcoming heart of the people of Guangzhou.
A He is described as an earthy, modest, serene and decisive goat. A He wears a black outfit that resembles the black ring of the Olympic emblem and symbolizes the grand heritage and long history of the Lingnan culture.
A Ru is described as a beautiful, fashionable, smart and passionate goat. A Ru wears a red outfit that resembles the red ring of the Olympic emblem and symbolizes the red kapok —the city flower of Guangzhou, which gives Guangzhou its nickname of The City of Flowers.
A Yi is described as a nifty, cute, lively and outgoing goat. A Yi wears a green outfit that resembles the green ring of the Olympic emblem and symbolizes the city's famous Baiyun Mountain.
Le Yangyang is described as the tall, handsome, sunny and confident leader of the goat ram mascot team. Le Yangyang wears a yellow outfit that resembles the yellow ring of the Olympic emblem and symbolizes the color of rice grains, as Guangzhou has the nickname, The City of Rice Grains.
Medals
The medal designs were unveiled at Guangzhou No. 2 Children's Palace on September 29, 2010. The theme of the design was the "Maritime Silk Road." They featured the Emblem of the Olympic Council of Asia and Guangzhou's kapok flower on the obverse and the Maritime Silk Road image and the games' logo on the reverse. The Maritime Silk Road image depicts a Chinese boat sailing on the sea, representing Guangzhou as the starting place of Maritime Silk Road, as the most important commercial center and entrepot of the Southern China, Hong Kong and Macau regions.Motto
The official motto of the 2010 Asian Games was "Thrilling Games, Harmonious Asia". It was chosen to represent the goal of the Asian Games which is based on Olympic ideals and values. The Games aimed to create a competitive atmosphere for participating athletes while promoting unity, peace and friendship among Asian people regardless of differences in race, nationality, religious beliefs and language.Promotion
Two years before the games, the "Road of Asia" tour was launched at Tianhe Sports Center to promote the games throughout the region. A ceremony was held on November 12, 2009, at the Guangzhou Gymnasium to mark the one-year milestone before the Games.Merchandising
Organizers started selling licensed Asian Games products with introduction of first batch in January 2008. On May 7, 2009, the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper signed a contract with the Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee and became the exclusive online retailer of licensed products.Music
The official theme song was released on September 30, 2010, and was called "Reunion". It was composed by Wu Liqun, with lyrics written by Xu Rongkai. The English version was translated by Chen Ning Yang, a Chinese-American physicist, and his wife, Weng Fan. The song was performed by Sun Nan and the late Yao Beina. Sun Nan also performed it again with Mao Amin for a music video. The song was selected based from a solicitation campaign for Asian Games songs which received more than 1,600 entries. 36 of them were released as selected songs for the Games.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 venue were constructed for the Games, while the rest were renovated. Other venues included the Asian Games Town, which consisted of the Games Village with the Athletes, Officials and Media Buildings, the Main Media Center and the International Broadcast Center.Organizers revealed that the total investment was over ¥15 billion.
On April 19, 2009, organizers announced that they had chosen Haixinsha Island on the Pearl River as the venues for the opening and closing ceremonies. This was the first time in the history of the Games that the ceremonies were held outside the Games' main venues.
The villages at the Asian Games Town was built on a 329,024-square-meter land space which had 3,598 apartments in 49 buildings.