"Are They Telling Us to Die?" ... An Se-young Slaps Her Cheeks to Endure the Asian Games' 'Brutal Schedule'

[Financial News] The badminton event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games has come under criticism for violating athletes' right to health through an unreasonable competition schedule. Even An Se-young (world No. 1), who boasts world-class ability, publicly expressed regret over the organizers' overly demanding event management, saying, "Isn't this telling athletes to die?"
According to sports officials on the 27th, the organizing committee scheduled the badminton individual events over five days, one day shorter than the six-day schedule at the previous 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. As a result, leading singles players who advanced from the round of 64 were forced into a grueling two-matches-in-one-day schedule, playing both the round of 32 and round of 16 on the morning and afternoon of the 26th.
In badminton singles, a discipline that exacts an extreme physical toll, playing two matches in one day is a bizarre schedule rarely seen at a regular international tournament. Cascading delays, in which each subsequent match is pushed back indefinitely as earlier matches run late, compounded the problem, and the schedule on the 26th ended well after midnight. Yuka Miyazaki of Japan, for instance, did not start until 12:08 a.m. on the 27th because of the lengthy wait and suffered a lopsided defeat amid extreme fatigue.
Players who made it through the round of 16, in particular, were put into quarterfinal action from the morning of the 27th without even half a day's rest. Critics say this deprived them of sufficient time to rest and recover.
Despite the brutal schedule, An Se-young swept Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon 2-0 (21-8, 21-9) in 31 minutes in the women's singles quarterfinal at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on the 27th. She advanced to the semifinals and secured a bronze medal.
However, in an interview immediately after the match, she continued to criticize the organizing committee's inept administration. An Se-young said, "I talked with my teammate Kim Ga-eun, and we said, 'Isn't playing two singles matches in one day basically telling us to die?'" She lamented, "There is a great deal about the tournament schedule that is disappointing." She then admitted, "Yesterday's grueling schedule clearly dulled my body's response, so I tried to wake myself up by slapping my own cheeks."
Criticism is mounting both within and outside the sports community that, by prioritizing the completion of matches while disregarding athletes' risk of injury, the organizers have lost sight of the basic safety management and match-quality control expected of an international multisport event.

[email protected] Moon Young-jin Reporter