Even when you live far away from the host city it’s sometimes possible to experience some live action and that was the case with the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games.

Having been lucky enough to witness track cycling in Izu (Shizuoka Prefecture) at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics I was heavily considering returning there to see the same event taking place off-site. Back then, buses were provided from Ito station to the remote Velodrome in the middle of the mountains. That wasn’t the case this time though meaning that it would involve too much effort in getting there from my family’s holiday home in Ito city.

It was only after giving up on the Velodrome cycling that I realised there might be some other sports taking place nearer to home. As it was, there was football in Osaka and Shizuoka, and Tokyo was hosting swimming, diving and equestrian. The latter was mildly appealing as a sport I’ve never seen in person but those tickets were long gone so I looked elsewhere.

The result was a ticket for a morning swimming session and as I walked from Tatsumi station on the Yurakucho Line it was quite strange to see so many bright red flags and signage for Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games. For a while I thought I might even be in central Japan until the spectacular looking building appeared.

This was actually my fourth time to visit Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Koto ward which was completed in February 2020. It possesses a swimming pool, diving pool, sub pool, practice area and 15,000 seats. There would be far fewer people than that watching on this particular day!

The first photo looks a bit daring as I’m stood poolside on top of the starting blocks. Or am I?

It’s all an illusion and when I started lining up for this photo opportunity I just thought it was to hold a sign in front of a background. As I got nearer to the front of the short line I realised what it was designed to look like!

This was the sixth and final day of swimming action at the games and it included a multitude of races covering all styles.

The women’s competition featured 50m butterfly, 800m freestyle and the 4 x 100m medley relay. For the men, there was 50m breaststroke, 400m freestyle, 200m backstroke and 200m freestyle.

A few hundred people were present with some family, backroom staff and fans from a few of the Asian countries taking part but many of those attending were probably just locals who wanted bragging rights for saying they’d been to the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games whilst making minimal effort!

As it was only the heats, there were no announcements of the competitors which meant things all moved quite smoothly over the one hour 40-minute duration.

Finding ways to amuse yourself is sometimes necessary when you’re not so invested in the action and for me that involved a close study of all the competitors’ names. I like Asian names that include a random western one as was the case with Lai King Wo Barry from Hong Kong. Also of interest were really long names like Thailand’s Thammananthachote or repeated names like Mohamed Mohamed of Egypt although my subsequent research suggests that one may have been a mistake.

When you watch swimming on TV, the winners names are shown the instant the touch pad sensor timing devices are touched at the climax of each race. A few years ago, I was frustrated that the giant TV screen above the pool didn’t show the exact TV pictures but thankfully that wasn’t a problem here.

Watching how various competitors prepare for the start was quite interesting and no doubt there was some superstition involved in terms of deciding when to step up on the blocks. It was quite easy to focus on each and every one of them as some races only had a few swimmers!

It’s a two-horse race!

The 20th Asian Games end on October 4th and I have to admit that they’ve pretty much bypassed me. I’ve actually seen very little action beyond what I saw at the pool and a few minutes here and there on the news.

Having the swimming in Tokyo can’t have been good for all those involved with the sport who must’ve felt a little cut off from the rest of the competition. I’m not one to complain though as it sure was convenient for me and I’m happy that I got to see a major event like swimming close to home.

Click here to read ‘How Many Different Sports Did I Manage to Go & Watch Live In 2025?’

Click here to read ‘A Double Dose of Water Sports Action at Tokyo Aquatics Centre’

Click here to read ‘At the Velodrome for Two Days of Live Track Cycling at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics’

Click here to read ‘What it’s Like to Be a Spectator at The Tokyo 2020 Olympics’