South Korea wins basketball gold at Asian Games, then waits hours for a bus home

South Korea's men's basketball team won gold at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games — then found themselves stranded again, waiting for a bus that never came as they tried to head home. It was the second time during the Games that a transport vehicle failed to show up for the squad.

On Monday, team member Yeo Jun-seok posted a photo on Instagram showing players sitting beside their luggage waiting for a vehicle, with the caption: "The bus still isn't coming, even on the day we leave."

According to the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, the team had planned a shooting session at a separate gymnasium on Sunday morning ahead of that evening's final against Japan. A vehicle scheduled to pick the players up from their accommodation at 10 a.m. failed to arrive without explanation, forcing the team to cancel the workout.

The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee said it would send a letter of protest to the organizing committee and the Olympic Council of Asia and request a meeting with senior officials. The basketball team defeated Japan 67-57 on Sunday to claim the gold medal — their first since the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, 12 years ago.

The root of the Games' organizational troubles was the decision not to build an athletes' village. The organizing committee, citing cost savings and sustainability, scrapped plans for a purpose-built apartment-style athletes' village and instead distributed more than 17,000 athletes and officials across hotels, the cruise ship Costa Serena, and a prefabricated container accommodation facility near Nagoya Port.

Costs ballooned far beyond initial projections. According to Japan's Mainichi Shimbun, total spending on the Asian Games and Asian Para Games combined reached about 370 billion yen ($2.36 billion), more than three times the original estimate.

The dispersed accommodation model quickly exposed its shortcomings.

Before the Games even opened, delegations from China, India, Sri Lanka and Kazakhstan waited for extended periods near Nagoya's Chubu Centrair International Airport on Wednesday, with some athletes unable to secure room assignments and forced to spend the night on the floors of the airport or the cruise ship's lobby.

Even the host nation Japan encountered problems, with reports of male and female participants being assigned to the same room, prompting organizers to consider moving some delegations to backup hotels.

Matsuo Yuta, the organizing committee's accommodation chief, told Reuters that officials were aware of the complaints and concerns raised by national delegations and were working on specific remedies.

Organizing committee chairman Omura told AFP that the container accommodations were built this year and had been assessed as functional by a committee of former athletes with Olympic experience, adding: "If there are different opinions, we will respond appropriately."

India's cricket association, meanwhile, booked a separate hotel for its men's team rather than use the official accommodation assignment, and some 2,000 Indian households in the Nagoya area offered to take in athletes if lodging proved insufficient. AFP reported that one official booked a hotel immediately after a single look at the assigned facility.

Operational mishaps also mounted. During a men's hockey match between South Korea and Bangladesh in Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture, on Friday, North Korea's national anthem was played instead of South Korea's.

The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee had earlier protested a welcoming ceremony at the athletes' village that featured a performance depicting Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Japanese warlord who launched the Imjin War against Korea.

The Games, which opened Saturday, run through Oct. 4, with more than 11,000 athletes from 45 countries competing for 369 gold medals across 43 sports.