1986 Asian Games

1986 Asian Games

The 10th Asian Games were held from September 20, 1986 to October 5, 1986 in Seoul, South Korea. The city was supposed to host the 1970 games, but it received security threats from neighbouring North Korea, forcing it to give up hosting the games to previous 1966 host Bangkok, Thailand. The venues and facilities of the 10th Asiad were the same venues and facilities used in the 1988 Summer Olympics because this was considered a test event.

A total number of 4,839 athletes, coming from 27 countries, were competing in 25 events. Debuting sports were judo, taekwondo, women's cycling and women's shooting. 83 Asian records and three world records were broken, while two world records were equalled in the Seoul Asiad.

Hammer thrower Shigenobu Murofushi from Japan won the Asian Games gold for the fifth successive time (1970–1986). But the star of the 1986 Asian Games was the Payyoli Express – P. T. Usha. She won four gold medals (and one silver), becoming the biggest winner of athletics gold medals in the Seoul Asiad.

The Seoul Asiad marked the coming of age of South Korean sports. They came second in the Seoul Asiad in the medal tally, displacing Japan (unofficially first if one ranks by total medals won). From the 1986 Asiad onwards, China and South Korea would always finish one and two in the overall medal count (except the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima).

All socialist countries including North Korea except Mainland China boycotted the Games due to political conditions. A spy detonated a bomb behind a vending machine in Gimpo International Airport and killed five people, including a technician, just few days before the Games started.