The delegation’s flight from Beijing landed on schedule at around 12:15 p.m., and buses were already stationed at the airport to take the athletes to their accommodation, the South China Morning Post reported.
However, a data entry error meant many members of the delegation were not properly logged into the airport’s departure system, leaving staff unable to dispatch vehicles for them, it added.
Of the 21-member gymnastics team, staff could only locate records for two, a glitch that stalled the departure of the entire squad for nearly six hours, according to Global Times.
At 2 p.m., a Xinhua reporter saw athletes from multiple countries, including China, resting on the floor or slumped in chairs at the transport center, visibly exhausted from the wait.
Many of the Chinese athletes took out yoga mats, foam rollers, and resistance bands to keep loose at the transport center, with table tennis star Sun Yingsha filmed stretching, according to the South China Morning Post.
Rather than continue waiting, the badminton team attempted to board nearby public buses, but could not secure enough tickets for the full squad.
The Chinese consulate in Nagoya then rented vehicles through local members of the local Chinese community, allowing the badminton team to depart by around 4:30 p.m.
Members of China’s table tennis, wushu, and rowing teams boarded buses at 5 p.m., while the gymnastics team did not leave until 6 p.m., nearly six hours after landing, with the last members of the Chinese delegation leaving at around 7 p.m.
Throughout the wait, only water was made available to athletes, and no food, both newspapers reported.
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Chinese athletes rest on the floor at Nagoya Airport, stranded for nearly six hours due to a transport system breakdown on Sept. 16, 2026. Photo by Reuters |
Gymnast Zhang Boheng later detailed his ordeal on social media, describing a day that began with a 3:30 a.m. wake-up, breakfast just after 7 a.m., and an 8 a.m. flight, only to land in Nagoya at noon and remain trapped at the airport until 6 p.m.
Zhang and his teammates had been assigned rooms aboard the Costa Serena cruise ship, which will house 4,000 of the Games’ 17,000 athletes and officials.
But heavy rain that battered Nagoya for a week left them unable to reach it, forcing the team to check into a local hotel instead, according to the SCMP.
Zhang called the day “outrageous,” noting he had gone 12 hours without eating, and said it left him “extremely, extremely tired.”
The incident quickly became a trending topic on Weibo, China’s equivalent of X, with hashtags referencing the stranded delegations and the lack of food drawing widespread attention.
Chinese social media users criticized organizers for what they characterized as insufficient pre-event testing and a lack of contingency planning.
“Transport and accreditation are the most basic guarantees for a major event,” one wrote, according to Global Timeswhile another said they feared the ordeal would affect the team’s performance in the competitions.
The 2026 Asian Games will feature over 11,000 athletes from 45 countries and territories competing in 469 events across 43 sports. Hosts Japan boast the largest contingent with 932 athletes, followed by China and South Korea. Asis’a biggest sporting event will officially open on Sept. 19 and close on Oct. 4.