20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026

Carlos Yulo © Pinterest

A star-studded gymnastics week

The 20th Asian Games are bringing some of the biggest names in artistic gymnastics to Japan, with Nagoya set to host five days of high-level competition from 21 to 25 September.

Among the headline athletes are Olympic champions Carlos Yulo of the Philippines and Hashimoto Daiki of Japan, alongside one of gymnastics’ most remarkable veterans, Oksana Chusovitina. Japan’s Oka Shinnosuke, the Paris 2024 Olympic all-around champion, is also entered, adding another major storyline to the men’s competition.

The gymnastics events will take place at Nagoya City General Gymnasium, also known as Rainbow Hall.

Hashimoto faces Olympic champion teammate

Hashimoto enters the Asian Games with an impressive résumé. He won the Olympic all-around title at Tokyo 2020 at just 19 years old and has since collected three World all-around championships, in 2022, 2023 and 2025.

Now, however, he will share the spotlight with Oka Shinnosuke.

Oka captured Olympic all-around gold in Paris 2024, while Hashimoto finished outside the top spot. Their latest meeting in Nagoya gives Japanese gymnastics fans another opportunity to see two generations of Olympic success competing on the same floor.

The men’s competition begins on 21 September with the all-around and qualification sessions, immediately setting up one of the most anticipated battles of the Games.

Yulo returns as a history-maker

Carlos Yulo arrives in Japan carrying a unique place in Philippine sporting history.

At Paris 2024, Yulo won two Olympic gold medals, taking victory in both floor exercise and vault. Those results made him the Philippines’ first Olympic champion in gymnastics.

His breakthrough on the world stage came earlier. In 2019, Yulo became the first Filipino gymnast to win a World Championship title, claiming gold on floor exercise. He has since added two World vault titles to his collection.

In Nagoya, his combination of explosive tumbling and difficult vaulting will make him one of the athletes to watch throughout the competition.

Chusovitina keeps rewriting the record book

At 51, Oksana Chusovitina continues to compete at a level that few athletes in any sport can match.

Her Olympic career began at Barcelona 1992, where she won team gold representing the Unified Team. More than three decades later, she is still competing internationally and remains closely associated with one event: the vault.

Chusovitina is entered in the women’s vault in Nagoya, choosing to compete at the Asian Games rather than wait for the World Championships in Rotterdam in October.

Her longevity has become one of the defining stories of modern gymnastics. Every new competition adds another chapter to a career that has already spanned several generations of athletes.

Five days, dozens of routines

The artistic gymnastics program begins with the men’s competition on Monday, 21 September. The women’s all-around and qualification sessions follow on Tuesday, before the team finals take center stage on Wednesday.

The final two days will be devoted to individual apparatus titles, creating a packed finish to the gymnastics program.

Monday, 21 September

• 10:00 — Men’s all-around final and team/apparatus qualification, subdivision 1
• 14:30 — Men’s all-around final and team/apparatus qualification, subdivision 2
• 17:00 — Men’s all-around victory ceremony

Tuesday, 22 September

• 12:00 — Women’s all-around final and team/apparatus qualification, subdivision 1
• 14:00 — Women’s all-around final and team/apparatus qualification, subdivision 2
• 17:30 — Women’s all-around final and team/apparatus qualification, subdivision 3
• 19:10 — Women’s all-around victory ceremony

Wednesday, 23 September

• 13:00 — Men’s team final
• 15:30 — Men’s team victory ceremony
• 19:00 — Women’s team final
• 21:00 — Women’s team victory ceremony

Thursday, 24 September

• 17:00 — Men’s floor exercise final
• 17:55 — Women’s vault final
• 18:35 — Men’s pommel horse final
• 19:45 — Women’s uneven bars final
• 20:25 — Men’s rings final

Friday, 25 September

• 15:00 — Men’s vault final
• 15:40 — Women’s balance beam final
• 16:50 — Men’s parallel bars final
• 17:30 — Women’s floor exercise final
• 18:40 — Men’s horizontal bar final

A major test before LA28

Beyond medals, Aichi-Nagoya 2026 is an important stop on the road toward the next Olympic cycle. The Asian Games are part of a wider period in which athletes are beginning to build toward Los Angeles 2028.

For Yulo, Hashimoto, Oka and the rest of the field, Nagoya offers another opportunity to test new routines, handle major-event pressure and compete against some of the strongest gymnasts in the region.

And for Chusovitina, the goal is once again refreshingly simple: step onto the vault and continue doing what she has done for more than 30 years — compete.

Source: article on olympics.com, by Scott Bregman published September 15, 2026.

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By Vitalina Andrushchenko, Staff Writer