Shantou, China, July 4, 2021: The organising committee of the Olympic Council of Asia’s 3rd Asian Youth Games in Shantou, China this November has announced that all venue construction has been completed.
Since Shantou was awarded the 3rd AYG on March 3, 2019 by the OCA, venue construction has been at the top of the agenda in order to provide the best sports environment for the youth of Asia and to promote the Olympic movement.
Preliminary work on the main venue - Shantou University East Campus Sports Centre - and the Athletes Village was completed by the end of July 2019, and construction then began on all venues. This work has been completed in the ensuing two years, enabling Shantou 2021 to reveal the venues to the public for the first time on June 30.
“By sticking to the principles of ‘Simplicity, Safety and Excellence’, Shantou has made its best efforts to prioritise the use of existing venues within the city,” the organising committee said in a statement.
“It has newly built an Athletes Village and two venue clusters - Shantou University East Campus Sports Centre and Sports Industry Base - while the remaining 23 Games venues are either renovated/expanded venues or will be temporarily built for Games time use.”
The organising committee added that post-AYG utilisation had been taken into account as early as the planning and design stage. After the Games, all venues will continue to serve the general public, either as university sports facilities or public venues to host cultural and sports activities, national fitness programmes, sports events and other activities.
Here is a detailed look at the venues for the AYG, which are set to take place in Shantou – a port city in Guangdong province – from November 20-28, 2021.
Shantou University East Campus Sports Centre: The main venue has a 22,000-capacity stadium, a gymnasium with 8,000 seats, training field, training centre and convention centre. It will be the venue for the opening ceremony and competition and training venue for athletics and gymnastics.
Sports Industry Base: This renovated venue cluster will be the competition/training venue for eight sports: swimming, diving, water polo, football, table tennis, rugby sevens, sport climbing and basketball 3x3.
Haojiang Gymnasium: Taekwondo.
Shantou People’s Stadium: Football and wushu. Public sports centre after the AYG.
Shantou Zhengda Gymnasium: Badminton. Public sports centre after the AYG.
Guangdong Shantou Overseas Chinese Middle School: Badminton training venue.
