14-Hour Wait, No Rooms & Food: Indian Athletes Face Accommodation Chaos In Nagoya Ahead Of Asian Games

Last Updated:September 17, 2026, 2:06 PM IST

Indian athletes endured a frustrating start to their Asian Games campaign, with multiple teams waiting more than 14 hours for accommodation in Nagoya.

Athletes stranded at the airport (Picture credit: Screengrab from X)

Multiple Indian athletes were left waiting for more than 12 hours after arriving in Nagoya for the Asian Games, with many not getting access to their rooms on time despite having valid accreditations, according to a report in The New Indian Express.

Indian athletes were left stranded for more than 14 hours without food and with minimal facilities available to them. As the hours ticked by, their wait to access rooms on the cruise ship docked in the city for accommodation just grew longer, with local officials offering little assistance.

Even those who managed to get accommodation have been forced to share rooms, with the organising committee allocating some of the available space to teams from other countries, a move that appears to have stemmed from a serious miscalculation of the number of athletes expected to arrive, according to the report.

Indian rowers travelled to Japan in two batches from Delhi Airport on Tuesday, with the second group departing a few hours after the first. After a stopover in Bangkok, the first batch arrived in Nagoya at around 8 am Japan Standard Time on Wednesday.

They reached the cruise ship an hour later, just to find themselves waiting for the accommodation that had been promised to them, according to the report.

“We reached the facility around 9 AM JST and it is 8:30 PM now, but only a few of us got the rooms. Even those who got the rooms were asked to accommodate more athletes,” a rower said while speaking to The New Indian Express.

The rowers weren’t the only Indian athletes to face such a situation, with the shooters and two other teams also affected. The shooters were forced to check into a different hotel after the facility where they were supposed to stay was allocated to others.

Some Indian Olympic Association members were moved to a nearby hotel as well, with the medical team having to adjust with them temporarily.

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What accommodation issues did Indian athletes face upon arriving in Nagoya for the Asian Games?

Multiple Indian athletes, including rowers and shooters, were left stranded for over 14 hours without food and with minimal facilities. Many could not access their rooms on time despite having valid accreditations. Those who did get rooms were forced to share them because the organizing committee allocated some of the space to other countries due to a miscalculation of athlete numbers. Additionally, some athletes and coaches did not find their names registered at the venue, and shooters had to check into a different hotel after their facility was given to others.

Why is there an accommodation shortage at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games?

There is no dedicated athletes’ village for the Games in an effort to cut costs. Instead, organizers are relying on a cruise ship, hotels, and temporary wooden units. The accommodation crunch arose because more than 17,000 athletes and officials are expected to attend, whereas local organizers only anticipated 15,000 and previously stated they lacked the budget and manpower to handle the ballooning numbers.

How did the Sports Authority of India prepare athletes for the unique housing conditions in Japan?

To prevent athletes from feeling shocked or claustrophobic when given temporary housing in Japan, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) created simulator shipping containers at its headquarters in Patiala and Bengaluru. These 40-foot-long and eight-foot-wide units replicate the temporary wooden units and container housing being used in Nagoya to cut costs. The Indian simulator units were equipped with four beds, two air conditioners, a refrigerator, storage tables, a toilet, a washroom, and a washing machine.

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