Jakarta-Palembang 2018 Asian Games - IGBS Broadcast Opening Sequence
Copyright (c) 2018 International Games Broadcasting Services
The 18th edition of the Asian Games were held at Indonesia in two co-hosting cities: Jakarta; the country's capital, and Palembang; the capital of South Sumatra province. It was the second time that the Southeast Asian island nation staged the Asian Games, after Jakarta had last held the continental meet 56 years prior in 1962.
The Vietnamese city of Hanoi was originally chosen to stage this edition of the Asiad, after they've won the bid against two other candidate cities: Surabaya and Dubai. But however in 2014, Vietnamese officials have decided that they had to back out from hosting the Asiad, citing budgetary concerns and other factors as the main reasons for the withdrawal. Many of the Vietnamese public supported Hanoi's decision to step down as Asiad hosts. Also on the same year, Jakarta stepped in as the host city, with Palembang as co-hosts. Jakarta was chosen because of its well-equipped sports facilities, adequate transportation networks, and other facilities such as hotels and lodgings for guests.
This edition of the Asiad was initially due to be held in 2019, so that the event would be held in the year immediately before the then-2020 Olympics in Tokyo, instead of two years before. But after the Games were reattributed to Indonesia, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) backtracked on these plans and kept the event in 2018, so that they would not interfere with Indonesia's general elections that would take place that year.
Over 11,000 athletes from all 45 members of the OCA participated in the Asiad, which featured 484 events in 42 sports. Several non-Olympic events were trimmed from the event programme, but several new disciplines being introduced at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo (including 3x3 basketball) were added, while eSports and canoe polo were also contested and showcased as demonstration sports.
Indonesian authorities were confident that both host cities would be ready for the Games, but the country had only four years to prepare for the Games after filling in for Vietnam, which backed out. On top of that, work in both host cities were delayed throughout 2015 because government funding was not immediately available.
One of the top issues for both host cities ahead of the Asiad is air pollution; Jakarta has long struggled to boost air quality, regularly rated as unsafe by the World Health Organization (WHO) as Jakarta's average score on the Air Quality Index (AQI) had exceeded 100 during early July 2018, while Palembang also had been constantly under risk of haze caused by peatland fire during dry season which coincides with the Games. Authorities then looked into cloud seeding to combat the fire hotspots by triggering rainfall in dry areas with flares of salt shot into suitable clouds.
Other various concerns marring the Asiad include traffic congestion problems in Jakarta, security in the wake of a series of terrorist attacks in Surabaya earlier in May 2018, and already-provoked Indonesian football fans at venues and on social media.