The baseball final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, the first 100-meter gold medal bid in athletics, the Moreno squad's first international soccer friendly and the Presidents Cup golf tournament. This year's Chuseok holiday, which falls during the Asian Games, brings a fuller slate of sporting events than ever. It is a chance for families gathered for the holiday to cheer on the athletes together.
The Asian Games, which opened on the 19th of this month, reach their midpoint during the Chuseok holiday. Over four days, Team Korea will chase gold medals in artistic gymnastics, fencing, swimming, table tennis, athletics and baseball.
Yeo Seo-jeong, the "vault fairy" of women's artistic gymnastics, gets things started on the holiday's first day. She competes in the women's vault final at 5:55 p.m. on the 24th at the Nagoya City Gymnasium in Japan. She finished first in qualifying on the 22nd with 14.466 points, raising hopes for gold. At 7 p.m., the women's individual sabre fencing final takes place, featuring Jeon Ha-young, a team silver medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
On the 25th, the men's soccer team, seeking a fourth straight title, plays Vietnam in the quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m., while the men's foil and women's epee team fencing finals begin at 7:10 p.m. Song Se-ra, who won gold in the women's individual epee, is aiming for a second title at the Games. The starting gun for the men's 100-meter final in athletics, which crowns "Asia's fastest," sounds at 10:15 p.m. Nnamdi Joel-Jin will target a sub-10-second run and a medal.
The men's 400-meter freestyle swimming final begins at 5:53 p.m. that day, the main event for Kim Woo-min, a triple gold medalist at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. Attention turns to whether he can overcome the shoulder injury revealed after a disappointing eighth-place finish in the 1,500 meters to fight for a medal.
Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin, the world's top-ranked table tennis mixed doubles pair, are likely to reach the final at 7:30 p.m. on the 26th. The two are the world's best, having beaten China's Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha at the world table tennis finals late last year. Mixed doubles is an event in which Korea has never won gold since table tennis became an official Asian Games sport in 1958. Lim and Shin swept past Qatar and Kazakhstan on the 23rd to reach the quarterfinals.
At 6:45 p.m. on the 26th, the men's sabre fencing team, led by Oh Sang-uk and Do Gyeong-dong, goes after a fourth consecutive team title. The men's shot put final in athletics at 8 p.m. also deserves attention, because of 19-year-old Park Si-hoon, known as "Korea's Thor." After making his mark on the world stage with a silver medal at last month's Under-20 World Athletics Championships, he is taking aim at the Korean record of 19.49 meters, which has stood since 2015.
The 27th belongs to baseball. A win in the final at 6:30 p.m. at Toyohashi Municipal Baseball Stadium in Aichi Prefecture would give Korea a fifth straight title. At 8:15 p.m., the men's high jump final in athletics features "Smile Jumper" Woo Sang-hyeok. His recent form has not been good. In two international competitions he fell well short of his personal best this year of 2.30 meters. Attention is focused on whether Woo, a silver medalist at the past two Asian Games, can write a turnaround story with a first gold.
There is plenty to watch beyond the Asian Games. A soccer friendly between Korea and Ecuador takes place at 8 p.m. on the 24th at Suwon World Cup Stadium. It marks the debut of interim head coach Roberto Moreno of Spain at the helm of the Korean team. Lee Kang-in, who has been in fine form since moving to Atletico Madrid in Spain, will show his skills in front of home fans.
The Presidents Cup, the men's professional golf competition between the United States and the International Team, opens on the 24th in Chicago and runs for four days. The International Team's three Korean players — Kim Si-woo, Im Sung-jae and Kim Joo-hyung — could be key to beating a U.S. side led by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
