KBS World Radio 17th Asian Games INCHEON 2014

The opening ceremony of the 2014 Incheon Asian Games will start at 7:18PM on Friday, 19 September, at the Incheon Asiad Main Stadium. The doors to the stadium will open at 6PM, and there will be a pre-ceremony event introducing the city of Incheon. There will be a couple of speeches and some K-Pop performances as well, and starting at 7:18pm, the main ceremony will run for a total of 162 minutes, divided into 4 parts, delivering a message of unity among others.

Part One will start with a display of fireworks, followed by a welcoming speech by Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok. And a performance will be put on to describe the past, present and future of Asia, featuring none other than the famous Seoul Olympic “hoop boy.”

For those who may not know, the ‘hoop boy’ was part of the opening ceremony of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. What he did was - he rolled a metal hoop across the empty grass infield of the Olympic Stadium all alone, and has since been a lasting symbol of the Seoul Olympics in many people’s minds here.

Part Two of the ceremony will take the form of a cultural performance, including music and poetry, and Part Three is where all the athletes from 45 different countries across Asia will be welcomed into the stadium. Once the athletes all arrive, OCA President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah will officially declare the beginning of the 17th Asian Games.



Part Four is when the Olympic flame will be lit. The torch, lit at Dhyan Chand National Stadium in New Delhi, India last month, traveled across Asia and was combined with another torch lit at Manisan on Ganghwa Island, in Incheon. By the time it reaches the Incheon Asiad Stadium later today, the domestic torch relay would have gone through 70 cities across the country, for 5,700km. And once it gets there, it’ll see its last 6 torch bearers, including star baseball player Lee Seung-yeop, Golfer Park Inbee, former national speed skater Lee Kyou-hyuk, former national basketball player Park Chan-sook, tennis player Lee Hyung-taik, and lastly, a mystery torch bearer, who will finally light the Olympic flame that will remain lit for the next 2 weeks.



For the finale, Hallyu musicians JYJ and PSY will perform for the athletes and other guests to wrap up the opening ceremony.



Famed film director Lim Kwon-Taek is in charge of the ceremony, and playwright Jang Jin is the artistic director. Jang told an interview that “Unlike the previous Asian Games and Olympics that focused on flaunting their national power, the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2014 Incheon Asian Games won’t simply show off a scale but try to deliver a clear message, ’4.5 billion Asians’ dream, Asia as one.”



Competitions will start on Saturday the 20th, and South Korea hopes to grab some golds from the very first day. Air Pistol Women’s Team Finals, Men’s Pistol Individual, Men’s Epee and Women’s Sabre Fencing, and some of the Judo, Cycle and Equestrian events are those that you want to pay close attention to.



On Sunday, swimmer Park Tae-hwan will face off with his rival Sun Yang of China for the 200m event, so that’s something to look forward to as well, among many others.