Sports Talk

The Asian Games accommodation drama is a bit of a disgrace, honestly

Reading about the Nagoya build-up, I was genuinely surprised. No athletes' village to cut costs, so hotel rooms, temporary wooden cabins and a cruise ship for around 17,000 athletes and officials. Organisers originally planned for 15,000.

The Korean basketball association said the cabin beds were too short for players over two metres, and one player posted a video of a leaking sink captioned "Please help us." That's not a minor complaint, that's basic comfort for elite athletes who've trained years for this.

I understand the pressure on costs, but this feels like the athletes paid for it. And then thousands of empty seats at the opening, partly due to typhoon warnings. Not a great start.