Asian Winter Games

The Asian Winter Games (AWG) is an international multi-sport event held every four years for members of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) which features winter events. The Japanese Olympic Committee first suggested the idea of holding a winter version of the Asian Games in 1982. Their efforts were rewarded when they were finally given hosting rights for the first edition that was held in Sapporo in 1986, as the city had the infrastructure and expertise gained from hosting of the 1972 Winter Olympics.

Asian Winter Games

Official logo of the Games
Abbreviation	AWG
First event	1986 Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan
Occur every	Four years
Last event	2017 Asian Winter Games in Sapporo-Obihiro, Japan
Next event	2025 Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China
Purpose	Multi-sport event for nations on the Asian continent

From having only seven member nations of the Olympic Council of Asia taking part in the first edition, the number of nations competing in the Winter Asiad has consistently grown. In the 2007 Asian Winter Games in Changchun, 27 out of the 45 members fielded a record number of competitors, while all 45 NOCs sent delegations for the first time ever in Winter Asian history.

Although games in Lebanon in 2009 were considered, they did not take place and were cancelled.^[1] After the 2017 Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, the next edition is scheduled to be held in Harbin in 2025.

List of Asian Winter Games

1986,1990,2017

1996, 2025

1999

2003

2007

2011

2011

2029

Host cities of the Asian Winter Games

Edition	Year	Host city	Host nation	Opened by	Start date	End date	Nations	Competitors	Sports	Events	Top-placed team	Ref.
1	1986	Sapporo	Japan	Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah	1 March	8 March	7	293	7	35	Japan	[2]
2	1990	Sapporo	Japan	Emperor Akihito	9 March	14 March	9	310	6	33	Japan	[3]
3	1996	Harbin	China	President Jiang Zemin	4 February	11 February	17	453	8	43	China	[4]
4	1999	Gangwon	South Korea	President Kim Dae-jung	30 January	6 February	14	798	7	43	China	[5]
5	2003	Aomori	Japan	Crown Prince Naruhito	1 February	8 February	17	641	11	51	Japan	[6]
6	2007	Changchun	China	President Hu Jintao	28 January	4 February	25	796	10	47	China	[7]
7	2011	Astana and Almaty	Kazakhstan	President Nursultan Nazarbayev	30 January	6 February	26	843	11	69	Kazakhstan	[8]
8	2017	Sapporo and Obihiro	Japan	Crown Prince Naruhito	19 February	26 February	32	1,147	11	64	Japan	[9]
9	2025	Harbin	China	TBD	7 February	14 February			11	64
10	2029	Trojena	Saudi Arabia	TBD

• At the 2017 Games, the Olympic Council of Asia invited athletes from Oceania. Two countries from the region (Australia and New Zealand) accepted the invitation and their athletes competed along with 30 NOCs from Asia.

Sports

Main article: Asian Winter Games sports

Sport Years Alpine skiing All Bandy 2011 Biathlon All Cross-country skiing All Curling 2003–2007, since 2017 Figure skating 1986, since 1996 Freestyle skiing 1996, since 2003 Ice hockey All Short-track speed skating All Ski jumping 2003, 2011-2017 Ski mountaineering 2025 Ski orienteering 2011 Snowboarding 2003–2007, since 2017 Speed skating All

Medal count

Main article: All-time Asian Winter Games medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Japan	138	144	115	397
2	China	94	85	105	284
3	Kazakhstan	78	62	56	196
4	South Korea	74	83	92	249
5	North Korea	1	4	12	17
6	Uzbekistan	1	2	4	7
7	Lebanon	1	1	0	2
8	Mongolia	0	1	6	7
9	Iran	0	1	2	3
10	Kyrgyzstan	0	0	1	1
Totals (10 entries)		387	383	393	1,163

See also

• Winter Olympic Games

References

1. "The skiers of Lebanon". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2005-06-04. Archived from the original on 2023-07-09.
2. "1st AWG Sapporo 1986". Olympic Council of Asia. Retrieved 22 July 2010.^{[permanent dead link]}
3. "2nd AWG Sapporo 1990". Olympic Council of Asia. Retrieved 22 July 2010.^{[permanent dead link]}
4. "3rd AWG Harbin 1996". Olympic Council of Asia. Retrieved 22 July 2010.^{[permanent dead link]}
5. "4th AWG Gangwon 1999". Olympic Council of Asia. Archived from the original on 2010-06-13. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
6. "5th AWG Aomori 2003". Olympic Council of Asia. Archived from the original on 2011-12-08. Retrieved 1 February 2003.
7. "6th AWG Changchun 2007". Olympic Council of Asia. Archived from the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 28 January 2007.
8. "7th AWG Astana-Almaty 2011". Olympic Council of Asia. Archived from the original on 2010-11-08. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
9. "8th AWG Sapporo 2017". Olympic Council of Asia. Archived from the original on 2010-11-07. Retrieved 19 February 2017.

External links

• 2025 Asian Winter Games official website
• Olympic Council of Asia