VR taekwondo, teqball, padel: Unusual sports to watch at the Asian Games

The 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games will feature 43 sports and 71 disciplines — a larger program than the 40 sports and 61 disciplines at the previous Hangzhou Games in 2022. Among them, several unconventional sports are drawing attention from fans who rarely encounter them at the Olympics.

One of the most eye-catching additions is virtual taekwondo, a new event in the sport that South Korea pioneered. It combines taekwondo with VR technology, replacing physical contact with a real opponent: athletes control digital characters in a simulated space rather than clashing with a real-life rival.

Competitors wear motion-tracking sensors on their bodies and perform taekwondo moves on a 4-by-4-meter mat. Their movements are mirrored in real time by virtual characters. The event is a mixed individual tournament, with 16 athletes competing in a bracket to crown the first-ever Asian Games champion in the discipline.

South Korea's An Hyang-sik, who is also entered in the men's 58-kilogram taekwondo sparring event, will compete in virtual taekwondo and bid for the inaugural gold medal.

Teqball, which blends soccer and table tennis, is also making its first appearance as an official Asian Games sport. Invented in Hungary, it is played across a curved table with a convex surface in the middle.

Players may use their head, chest and legs — but not their arms or hands — to control the ball. They must send it to the opponent's side within three touches and cannot hit it twice in a row with the same body part. The result is a game that feels like watching soccer ball control and table tennis rallying at the same time.

South Korea has assembled a four-member squad — Lee Jun-seok, Lee Tae-bin, Kim Eun-jun and Jang Eun-seo — for the sport's inaugural Asian Games appearance.

Padel, a racket sport that blends tennis and squash, is also appearing at the Asian Games for the first time. Originating in Mexico, it spread through Latin America before gaining popularity around the world.

The game is played similarly to tennis, but the court is enclosed by glass or wire mesh walls. As in squash, players can use the walls to keep a rally going, producing exchanges that differ markedly from those in tennis. South Korea will not compete in cricket or padel among the 43 sports on the program.

Beyond the newly added events, the Asian Games also retain sports unique to the competition that never appear at the Olympics, such as kabaddi and sepak takraw.

From traditional sports to cutting-edge hybrid disciplines, the breadth of the program creates a spectacle that sets the Asian Games apart from the Olympics.