The Asian Paralympic Committee regretfully announce that Tashkent, Uzbekistan will not be hosting the 2025 Asian Youth Para Games.
Following the announcement earlier this month by the Olympic Council of Asia that they are switching the 2025 Asian Youth Games to Bahrain, the Tashkent organising committee have informed the APC that the necessary infrastructure to host the Games at the highest level will now not be ready for the Asian Youth Para Games, which were scheduled to take place after the Asian Youth Games in October 2025.
The Local Organising Committee have proposed postponing the games but we have concluded that moving the games to the following year is not a viable option and therefore they cannot go ahead in Tashkent. This is due to the calendar of events in 2026, which includes the Aichi Nagoya 2026 Asian Para Games, meaning that NPCs will have limited capacity to plan for two major multi-sport events and which will impact the availability of the classifiers and technical officials who are so vital to the Youth Para Games.
Therefore, they will now try to find an alternative city to host the 2025 Asian Youth Para Games but acknowledge that this will not be an easy task in the timeframe available and the accessibility challenges that para games present.
APC President Majid Rashed said; “We are all disappointed with this news as the Asian Youth Para Games have become an important stepping stone for young Asian Para athletes onto the Asian Para Games and ultimately the Paralympic Games. We firmly believe that they have been an integral part of the continued success and development of the Paralympic Movement in Asia. With the focus on young para-athletes, they are a joyous celebration of sport and the triumph of the human spirit, as past hosts Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Bahrain can testify. The APC Executive Board are committed to exploring every option in order to enable the Asian Youth Para Games to go ahead as planned next year. In the meantime, we appreciate Uzbekistan’s efforts to support the Paralympic movement and believe that they will host such multi-sport competitions in the future.”
