The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (abbreviated as AIMAG) is a pancontinental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. It is organised by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and consists of Indoor and martial arts events with TV broadcasting potential, some of which were not contested at the Asian Games and Asian Winter Games Programs and are not Olympic sports.
The event is a merger of two formerly separate OCA-sanctioned events – Asian Indoor Games (abbreviated as AIG) and Asian Martial Arts Games (abbreviated as AMAG), first held in Bangkok, Thailand in 2005 and 2009 respectively. Both events merged to form the present-day event in 2013, with the subsequent editions inheriting the edition numeral of the former. These Games are described as the second largest Asian multi-sport event after the Asian Games.
In its history, five nations have hosted the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games and sixty-three nations from Asia and Oceania and two teams have participated in the event. The last Games were held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan 17–27 September 2017, while the next edition are scheduled to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia sometime in 2025.
History
The Asian Indoor Games consisted of indoor sports with TV broadcasting potential, several of which are not included in the Asian Games and Winter Asian Games Programs and are not Olympic sports. The sports program included electronic sports, extreme sports, aerobics, acrobatics, indoor athletics, dance sports, futsal, inline hockey, finswimming, and 25 metres short course swimming. The 2007 Asian Indoor Games in Macau also saw the first major test of FIBA 3x3, a formalized version of three-on-three basketball that saw its official worldwide debut at the 2010 Youth Olympics.[1] FIBA 3x3 was also contested in the 2009 Games.
Doha was given the rights to hold the fourth edition scheduled for 2011, but a year later, in June 2008, the Qatar Olympic Committee officially withdrew as host citing "unforeseen circumstances".[2] In response, the OCA said that the 2009 Asian Indoor Games would be the last edition of the games. The Asian Indoor Games and the Asian Martial Arts Games would then combine, becoming the quadrennial Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. The inaugural event was held in Incheon, South Korea in 2013.
