ASIAN YOUTH GAMES – A massive total of 1,677 medals will be awarded across the 24 sports that will be held at the highly anticipated third Asian Youth Games 2025 in Bahrain later this year.
The medals that will be presented to the continent’s best young athletes have been approved by the event’s executive committee, it was announced yesterday.
The mega multi-sport occasion is set to be hosted by the kingdom from October 22 to 31. It will be taking place under the royal patronage of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
The medals, adorned in the traditional gold, silver, and bronze, feature the official emblem of the Games at their centre, surrounded by stylised elements representing the word ‘Bahrain’.
The medals include 505 gold, 503 silver, and 669 bronze medals.
The third Asian Youth Games will showcase a diverse range of sports, including athletics (track and field along with cross-country), badminton, 3x3 basketball, boxing, camel racing, cycling, equestrian (endurance and showjumping), E-sports, futsal, golf, handball, jiu-jitsu, judo, kabaddi, Muay, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, teqball, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, beach volleyball, and beach weightlifting.
Over 5,000 athletes from 45 National Olympic Committees will compete for these prestigious medals.
Seven sports will commence prior to the official opening ceremony on October 22. These include boys’ futsal, handball, and volleyball, starting on October 19, followed by girls’ futsal, kabaddi, teqball, and beach volleyball, all beginning on October 21.
The final day of the Asian Youth Games on October 31 will only feature men’s and women’s swimming events and their awards presentation, alongside the official closing ceremony.
This year’s Games will serve as a qualifying event for the Youth Olympic Games, to be held in Dakar, Senegal, in the summer of 2026.
The kingdom was named as host nation in December of last year following the sudden withdrawal of original organisers Uzbekistan, who stated that they were unable to stage the event as the construction of Tashkent’s Olympic City would not be completed on time. With the Asian Youth Games linked to Dakar, it could not be postponed, and Bahrain therefore stepped in and have since been working double time to put the massive occasion together.
Bahrain’s hosting of the third Asian Youth Games also follows the massive success of the ISF Gymnasiade Bahrain 2024, held last October. The event, held in cooperation with the International School Sport Federation (ISF), featured more than 5,000 participants, including 4,000 athletes, from more than 80 countries.
The first edition of the Asian Youth Games was held in 2009 in Singapore with 43 nations competing in nine sports. The second edition was in Nanjing, China in 2013 with 45 countries participating in 16 sports. Succeeding editions in 2017 and 2021 were cancelled, and the stage is now set for the event to be held in Bahrain.
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