Problems with transportation, training venue assignments and game operations at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games have now extended to washing players' uniforms. South Korea's baseball team ran into trouble getting its laundry done locally, prompting the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) to line up an outside vendor on its own.
National teams competing in baseball are all staying at a hotel in Nagoya, according to a Korean baseball team official on the 24th. The hotel provides laundry service, but turnaround times left players who need their uniforms every day in a bind. "When we did our advance site visit, we confirmed there would be no problem having uniforms laundered locally," the team official said. "The problem surfaced after we arrived on the 18th and began training here."
The KBO ended up tracking down an outside laundry company and signing a contract. The Korean team now sends its uniforms and other laundry to that vendor.
Teams from other countries ran into similar problems. Taiwan's team took time to find an outside vendor, and ahead of its Sept. 22 game against Thailand, players ended up doing their own laundry late into the night using coin-operated machines at the hotel. The Chinese Taipei Baseball Association later secured an outside laundry service as well.
Transportation has been a recurring problem at these Games. Before South Korea's men's soccer team opened group play against Qatar on the 15th, the squad's bus headed to a nearby baseball stadium instead of the match venue, leaving the team about 30 minutes behind schedule on arrival. The following day, bus arrangements for the trip to a training site also broke down.
The men's basketball team had planned a morning training session on the day of its final against Japan, but canceled it when the assigned bus failed to show up. South Korea still beat Japan 67-57 to take the gold medal.
Errors also occurred during competition. At the men's field hockey group-stage game between South Korea and Bangladesh on the 18th, the North Korean anthem played in the arena while the South Korean flag was raised. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee sent a letter of protest to the organizing committee demanding an explanation, a formal apology and steps to prevent a recurrence. South Korea was also incorrectly introduced as the "Republic of China" on one occasion.
Training conditions have been an issue as well. The baseball team had not been notified of its official training times or locations by the organizing committee as of its arrival date, and trained instead at an indoor facility the KBO secured on its own. The women's volleyball team was not assigned a court for ball work the day before its match and split players into groups for conditioning at the hotel fitness center.
Early in the Games, some members of the South Korean delegation waited for hours at the airport because shuttle bus assignments fell through. Rowing team members ultimately took taxis to their accommodations.
With no athletes' village built for these Games, competitors have been spread across a cruise ship, prefabricated container housing and hotels in the city. Since the opening, operational breakdowns have run from transportation, lodging and training venue assignments to game operations and laundry.
