The 9th Asian Winter Games have opened in Harbin, northeast China, and will be watched by many countries, including Turkmenistan, which has sent a team to the largest sporting event of the four-year period, through 14th of February.
Held under the motto «Winter Dream, Love in Asia» and bringing together a record number of athletes – 1,275 (755 men and 520 women) from 34 countries, the Games in Harbin are another major international winter sports event that China is hosting after the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. For the People’s Republic of China, these are also the third Asian Winter Games in history, after holding them in Harbin in 1996 and Changchun in 2007.
The ceremony, which combined modern technology and the region's cultural traditions, was directed by Sha Xiaolan, who is previously known for his work on the opening of the 2022 Beijing Olympics and the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou.
Given the low temperature and high humidity in the capital of Heilongjiang Province, the organisers decided to hold the opening parade indoors – at the Harbin International Exhibition and Sports Center in the presence of about 8,000 spectators. Delegations from 34 countries took part in it, including Turkmenistan, where winter sports – ice hockey, figure skating and short track – began to develop only after gaining independence. The column of Turkmen athletes was headed by the standard-bearer, national hockey team player Dovlet Hydyrov.
After the march-parade, which turned into a genuine procession of peace and friendship, all the sports delegations settled in the stands.
The Flag of the Olympic Council of Asia, under whose patronage the Asian Games are held, is brought out into the sports arena. After the traditional lap of honor, the huge banner is raised to the high flagpole to the sounds of the anthem.
During the ceremony, the first vice-president of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) Timothy Fok Zong-ting addressed the crowd with a welcoming speech, expressing his sincere gratitude to the Chinese organisers for their joint efforts to bring the Asian Winter Games back to Harbin after 29 years.
«In just 18 months, you have transformed Harbin into a winter wonderland – a fantastic achievement!» —Fok said in his speech.
The packed arena erupted in applause as Chinese President Xi Jinping officially declared the Games open in the presence of high-ranking guests, including International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.
The culmination of the grand opening ceremony was the lighting of the lilac-shaped fire cauldron by four torchbearers together with children at the world's largest ice and snow theme park - Harbin Ice and Snow World.
The decision to hold the white Asian Games in Harbin was made on the 8th of July, 2023 at the 42nd OCA General Assembly in Bangkok, Thailand. The emblem of the Games «Breakthrough» combines the figure of a speed skater, a lilac flower, which is the symbol of Harbin, and the sun icon of the Olympic Council of Asia.
The mascots of the Asian Games are adorable tiger cubs named Binbin and Nini. They were inspired by the cubs that were born in September 2023 in the Amur Tiger Park in Harbin. Binbin represents ice competitions, and Nini - snow competitions. Their names personify the Games mantra «Welcome to Harbin». Bingbing shows off his winter sportswear, boldly wearing a red scarf and blue gloves and sharing his joy of dancing on ice, while Nini goes snowboarding, wearing a traditional Chinese red cotton jacket with a warm fluffy collar and snowflake patterns that create a festive look.
As previously reported, the current Asian Winter Games surpassed the previous record-breaking 2017 Games in Sapporo, Japan, in terms of the number of participants, when 1,147 athletes from 32 countries participated, including two invited athletes from the NOCs of Oceania – Australia and New Zealand.
At the 2025 Asian Games in Harbin, athletes will compete for 64 sets of medals in 11 disciplines – speed skating, freestyle, short track, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, biathlon, figure skating, alpine skiing (ski mountaineering), curling, alpine skiing (downhill) and ice hockey.
Turkmenistan is sending a delegation to the Asian Winter Games for the second time.
Our athletes are competing in three sports – ice hockey and, for the first time, in short track and figure skating.
In women's singles figure skating, our country will be represented by two-time champion of Turkmenistan Larisa Vahitova and a student of the Turkmen State Institute of Physical Education and Sports, participant of the first winter international sports games «Children of Asia» in 2019 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, as well as the Bosphorus Cup in Türkiye and the international tournament in the UAE Ayna Ekayeva.
Pena Atayev, a gold medalist of the International Youth Examination Tournament in the 500-meter distance as part of the Dream Program training program in 2015 in Pyeongchang (Republic of Korea), has already made his debut in short track. In the preliminary races for 500 and 1000 meters, he was unable to overcome the qualification, being outside the top 30 athletes in the overall standings. In the 500-meter distance, Pena showed 52.461 seconds, falling short of his best result of 8.261 seconds, and in a distance twice as long - 1 minute 54.772 seconds with a personal best of 1 minute 29.220 seconds.
The hockey tournament, which started four days before the opening of the Asian Games, is entering its final stages. After two major victories over Chinese Macau – 26:0 and India – 19:1, the Turkmen hockey players lost to Chinese Hong Kong – 1:5 in the group stage of the competition and will now play against the Kuwaiti team in the match for 9th-10th places at the 2025 Asian Games. The Kuwaiti hockey players took second place in Group «B», and the first place after the victory over Singapore – 11:2 went to the Kyrgyz team, which, like the winner of Group «C», Hong Kong, earned the right to play in the quarterfinals. The quarterfinal pairs will be determined on the 10th of February based on the results of a face-to-face match between the national teams of Kyrgyzstan and Hong Kong, as well as the final matches in Group «A», which includes teams from Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, China, Japan, Thailand and Chinese Taipei.
Remind that eight years ago at the previous VIII Asian Winter Games in Sapporo (Japan), the Turkmen hockey players, having won victories over the national teams of Malaysia - 9:2, Chinese Macau - 16:0, Indonesia - 12:2 and Kyrgyzstan - 7:3, won small gold medals in the second division and took 11th place in the overall standings among 18 teams participating in the tournament.
