Asian Winter Games

Asian Winter Games (AWG)
Official logo of the Games
Games
1986 1990 1996 1999 2003 2007 2011 2017

Asian Winter Games

Abbreviation	AWG
First event	1986 Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan
Occur every	Four years
Last event	2017 Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan
Next event	2017 Asian Winter Games in Sapporo-Obihiro, Japan
Purpose	Multi-sport event for nations on the Asian continent

The Asian Winter Games (AWG) is an international multi-sport event held every four years for members of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) which features winter events. The Japanese Olympic Committee first suggested the idea of holding a winter version of the Asian Games in 1982. Their efforts were rewarded when they were finally given hosting rights for the first edition that was held in Sapporo in 1986, as the city had the infrastructure and expertise gained from hosting of the 1972 Winter Olympics.

From having only seven member nations of the Olympic Council of Asia taking part in the first edition, the number of nations competing in the Winter Asiad has consistently grown. In the 2007 Asian Winter Games in Changchun, 27 out of the 45 members fielded a record number of competitors, while all 45 NOCs sent delegations for the first time ever in Winter Asian history.

Although games in Lebanon in 2009 were considered, they ultimately did not take place.

List of Asian Winter Games

1986,1990, 2017

1996

1999

2003

2007

2011

2011

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Host cities of the Asian Winter Games

Edition	Year	Host City	Host Nation	Start Date	End Date	Nations	Competitors	Sports	Events	Top Placed Team	Ref.
I	1986	Sapporo	Japan	1 March	8 March	7	293	4	35	Japan (JPN)
II	1990	Sapporo	Japan	9 March	14 March	9	310	4	33	Japan (JPN)
III	1996	Harbin	China	4 February	11 February	17	453	4	43	China (CHN)
IV	1999	Gangwon	South Korea	30 January	6 February	14	798	4	43	China (CHN)
V	2003	Aomori	Japan	1 February	8 February	17	641	5	51	Japan (JPN)
VI	2007	Changchun	China	28 January	4 February	25	796	5	47	China (CHN)
VII	2011	Astana‒Almaty	Kazakhstan	30 January	6 February	26	843	5	69	Kazakhstan (KAZ)
VIII	2017	Sapporo	Japan	19 February	26 February	32	1145	5	64	Japan (JPN)
IX	2021	Election in Ashgabat 2017		Future event

• For the 2017 Games, the Olympic Council of Asia invited athletes from the Oceania region. Two countries are scheduled to participate from the region (Australia and New Zealand), along with 30 NOCs from Asia.

Sports

Main article: Asian Winter Games sports

Sport Years Alpine skiing All Bandy 2011 only Biathlon All Cross-country skiing All Curling 2003–2007, 2017 Figure skating 1986, since 1996 Freestyle skiing 1996, since 2003

Sport Years Ice hockey All Ski orienteering 2011 only Short track speed skating All Ski jumping 1999, since 2011 Snowboarding 2003–2007, 2017 Speed skating All

All-time medal table

Main article: All-time Asian Winter Games medal table

No.	Nation	Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Japan (JPN)	8	138	144	115	397
2	China (CHN)	8	94	85	105	284
3	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	6	78	62	56	196
4	South Korea (KOR)	8	74	83	92	249
5	Indonesia (INA)	4	7	3	2	12
6	North Korea (PRK)	6	1	4	12	17
7	Uzbekistan (UZB)	6	1	2	4	7
8	Lebanon (LBN)	6	1	1	0	2
9	Mongolia (MGL)	8	0	1	6	7
10	Iran (IRI)	7	0	1	2	3
Total			387	383	393	1,163

External links

• 2011 Asian Winter Games official website
• Olympic Council of Asia