The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) will award $25,000 (approximately 34 million won) each to the male and female Most Valuable Players (MVPs) of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
On September 29, the OCA announced that the MVPs will be selected and honored at the closing ceremony on October 4.
The MVPs will be determined by a panel of five judges from the OCA, who will evaluate athletes based on their achievements during the competition, including world records, Asian records, Asian Games records, and the number of gold medals won.
Chinese swimmers are considered strong candidates for the awards. As of September 29, Zhang Jianzhu, who has won seven gold medals in swimming, is viewed as the leading contender in the men's category.
In the women's category, Wei Ting and Li Bingjie, both of whom have secured five gold medals, are in close competition.
The MVP award system for the Asian Games has been in place since the 1998 Bangkok Games, with Japan's Ito Koji being the first recipient. South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan is the only Korean athlete to have won the MVP award, achieving it at the 2006 Doha Games after winning three gold medals in freestyle events (200m, 400m, and 1500m).
Since the previous 2023 Hangzhou Games, the format has changed to award one male and one female MVP separately. In that event, Chinese swimming stars Qin Haiyang and Zhang Yufei were named the respective MVPs.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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