THAILAND, NOT CHINA, HAD THE MOST ATHLETES AT THE ASIAN GAMES (934)
Thailand is the country sending the most athletes to the 19th Hangzhou Summer Asian Games, which will kick off for the third time in China on 23 June .As of Tuesday, three days before the start of the Games, the number of athletes registered by the 45 nations that are members of the Organising Committee of the Asian Olympic Association (OCA) shows that Thailand is sending the most athletes with 934, ahead of China (887).South Korea is third with 869, while Japan has sent just 773 to Hangzhou. India, a country with a population almost as large as China’s, is sending 655 athletes. While a National Olympic Committee (NOC) usually refers to the organisation that represents a country, China has also registered Hong Kong and Macau, which were previously ceded to Great Britain and Portugal, as separate NOCs. Combined with the athletes from Hong Kong (688) and Macau (186), China’s special administrative regions, the total number of athletes from China is 1,076.North Korea has 185 athletes, down from 191.The Games will also feature an ‘independent team’, a concept similar to the Olympic Refugee Team organised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).Called “Independent Athletes Competing Under the OCA Flag,” the team will consist of 12 players and compete in a seven-a-side rugby match. The nationalities of the players were not listed on the tournament’s official information site, My Info. “The players on the independent team are all Sri Lankan,” said an official from the Korean Olympic Committee. “Since the Sri Lanka Rugby Association has been suspended by World Rugby, it seems that the OCA has taken into consideration the fact that Sri Lankan rugby players cannot compete at the Asian Games under their own nationality. “Sri Lanka has sent 84 athletes to the Asian Games, excluding sevens rugby players .The number of athletes competing 스포츠토토존 in the Games was 11,943 as of 20th.