NAGOYA, Japan, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Records have tumbled and new stars have emerged at the 2026 Asian Games, where a generation of young athletes has made its mark across sports ranging from swimming and athletics to skateboarding and esports.
Of China's 815 athletes, 548 are making their Asian Games debuts, while nearly a third were born in 2005 or later. The youngest is 12-year-old skateboarder Cao Shiqi.
Cao finished fourth in the women's park final, just 1.63 points shy of the podium. The tears she shed afterward, her coach said, would only sharpen a talent whose composure belies her age.
In the pool, 19-year-old Zhang Zhanshuo emerged as one of the Games' biggest stars, winning seven gold medals from eight events to equal the record for the most titles by an athlete at a single Asian Games.
Zhang swept the men's 200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle titles, breaking the Asian record in the 200m and Games records in the 400m and 800m. He added three relay golds, helping China set Asian records in the men's 4x200m and 4x100m freestyle relays.
Zhang was not the only teenager making waves at the Tokyo Aquatics Center.
Yu Zidi, 13, won three individual titles in four days. Victory in the women's 200m butterfly made her the youngest swimming gold medalist in Asian Games history before she broke the Asian record in the 200m individual medley and the Games record in the 400m individual medley.
On the track, Chen Yujie collected three golds and a silver on her Asian Games debut.
The Chinese sprinter won the women's 100m in a Games-record time, lowering the previous mark by 0.09 seconds. After taking silver in the 200m, she anchored China to victory in the women's 4x100m relay before producing a late surge to secure gold in the mixed 4x100m a day later.
Yan Ziyi needed only one throw to make her mark. The 18-year-old won the women's javelin with an opening effort of 70.46 meters, breaking the Games record by 4.37 meters and beating Japan's Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi.
But the emergence of a new generation has stretched well beyond China.
Japan's 17-year-old Shin Ohashi smashed the men's 200m breaststroke world record with a time of 2:04.83 and shared the 100m title with China's Dong Zhihao.
In esports, 11-year-old Yuki Kurihara of Japan defeated South Korea's Kang Dong-shin 10-2 in the Puyo Puyo Champions final to become the youngest gold medalist in Asian Games history.
Chinese Taipei's Ku Yong-yan, 12, took silver in the men's skateboarding park with 87.33 points, finishing behind Japan's Izuru Nagahara.
Other delegations also found young athletes breaking new ground.
Thailand's Puripol Boonson, 20, completed the men's sprint double, winning the 100m in a Games-record 9.90 seconds before clocking 19.88 in the 200m to equal the Asian record held by China's Xie Zhenye.
South Korea's Kang Jun-i won the men's street skateboarding title at 17, delivering his country's first Asian Games gold in the sport.
His compatriot Hwang Seo-hyun, 16, also made history, winning the women's balance beam to give South Korea its first Asian Games title in the event in 40 years. ■
