![Honohon, the official mascot of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/10/02/rcv.YNA.20260918.PYH2026091806750005200_P1.jpg)
The organizing committee for the 2030 Doha Asian Games has signaled it is open to pushing the event back by one year to 2031.
Ahmad Abdullah Al-Buainain, CEO of the Doha Asian Games Organizing Committee, told Reuters on Thursday (local time) that the committee is working closely with the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia on the matter. "We are open," he said, adding that "any such decision always involves many stakeholders and many reasons." The OCA and the IOC are in discussions about a possible change to the games' schedule.
Al-Buainain told AFP that the committee's plan remains to hold the games in 2030, but added that organizers must keep venues and operational plans ready regardless of any timing shift. "Whether it's moved forward or back by a year, the organizing committee has to be prepared without disruption," he said. He also told Xinhua that Qatar is ready to host the games in either 2030 or 2031.
If the Doha Asian Games are pushed back by a year, the 2032 Brisbane Olympics would follow just months later.
The OCA is considering holding the Asian Games one year before the Summer Olympics so the event can double as a regional Olympic qualifying competition. The rationale is that tying the games to Olympic berths would give countries a stronger incentive to field their top athletes. The Pan American Games already follow that model, taking place one year before each Olympics.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry, in a Xinhua interview on Sept. 19 — the opening day of the Aichi-Nagoya Games — said she understands that continental bodies are pursuing plans to hold their games one year before the Olympics and use them as qualifying events. "I think it's a really wonderful way to strengthen our movement," she said. "I look forward to that movement from the OCA and the Asian Games."
The Asian Games are larger in scope than the Olympics. The Aichi-Nagoya Games feature 43 sports, 11 more than the 32 at the Paris Olympics. That gap has prompted discussion about whether the Asian Games should trim its program to align more closely with the Olympic slate.
Al-Buainain said he has no intention of scaling back the Doha Games. "We are not looking to remove any sport or any athlete," he said, adding that there are "no restrictions for the time being" on the number of participants. Doha plans to hold a compact games by clustering existing venues into geographic zones.
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