Hangzhou, China, September 18, 2023: Mongolia will field its largest squad at an Asian Games with 403 athletes participating at the Hangzhou showpiece which gets underway on Saturday, September 23.
“This is our biggest squad. China is our good friend and we wanted to field a big team here. We will be taking part in 34 sports, which is also an all-time high at an Asian Games for Mongolia,” said Chef de Mission of the Mongolian delegation Ganbaatar Amgalanbaatar.
The head of Mongolia’s sports delegation was speaking after a colourful Team Welcome Ceremony at the Hangzhou Asian Games Village on Monday, September 18.
“We are fielding many athletes in team sports, and that is why our squad is big. We are also trying to encourage youth in Mongolia to play sports and many members of our team are youngsters,” Amgalanbaatar noted.
Mongolia will feature teams in football, basketball, cricket and volleyball, but according to their team leader, their best hopes of winning a medal will be in wrestling – 12 of the 25 gold medals the country has won in its Asian Games history since first participating at 1974 Tehran have come in wrestling.
“It will be no different this time too as our main hopes of winning medals will be in wrestling. But we will also have high hopes in shooting and boxing,” Amgalanbaatar pointed out.
China’s close ties with Mongolia have also resulted in the Mongolian delegation being sponsored by Chinese clothing outfit 361.
Meanwhile the Hangzhou Asian Games Village Mayor Li Huolin, who welcomed the Mongolian team to the Asian Games, noted that the Village was all about “being Green, Smart, Economical and Ethical”.
Besides the main Athletes’ Village in Hangzhou, there are also five sub-villages for competition zones Ningbo, Wenzhou, Jinhua, Tonglu and Chun’an throughout Zhejiang Province.
