UAE names a 165-athlete squad for the 2026 Asian Games in Japan

The UAE has named a 165-athlete team for the 2026 Asian Games in Japan, and it is one of the broadest squads the country has ever sent to a multi-sport event. The delegation spans 23 sports, from athletics and swimming to jiu-jitsu, padel and esports. If you train in a Dubai or Abu Dhabi gym, the interesting part is not the medal table. It is what a group preparing for 23 very different sports at once can teach you about building a body that does more than one thing well.

Who the UAE is sending to Japan

The 2026 Asian Games are the 20th edition of Asia's biggest multi-sport event, hosted by Aichi Prefecture and the city of Nagoya from 19 September to 4 October 2026. It is the third time Japan has staged the Games, after Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994, and this year around 46 nations compete across 43 sports and 71 disciplines.

The UAE's 165 athletes, 117 men and 48 women, will line up in athletics, swimming, taekwondo, padel, football, esports, equestrian show jumping and dressage, cycling, archery, rowing, sailing, fencing, golf, shooting, judo, modern pentathlon, triathlon, jiu-jitsu, rugby, weightlifting, boxing and karate. Modern pentathlon and padel are new ground: according to the UAE Olympic Committee, this is the first time the country has entered either sport at an Asian Games.

Where the UAE really medals

Breadth is not the same as depth, and honest expectation matters. The UAE's strongest Asian Games discipline by a distance is jiu-jitsu. The country topped the overall jiu-jitsu rankings at the last edition, the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, with gold medals from fighters including Khaled Al Shehi and Faisal Al Ketbi. Shooting, athletics and cycling have delivered results over the years too, but jiu-jitsu is where the UAE has built a genuine production line of contenders, backed by a grassroots system that puts the sport in schools across the country.

That is worth remembering when you watch the Games. A nation medals where it trains deep, not wide, and the same is true of a person. You get good at what you practise consistently, with a plan behind it. If a combat sport appeals, our boxing and combat classes are a friendlier front door to the same fitness the mat demands.

How a multi-sport team actually trains

A padel player, a rower and a weightlifter do not train the same way, but underneath the sport-specific work they share a base, and that base is the part an amateur can borrow. Elite programmes almost always run on a few plain ideas rather than secret ones.

• A strength foundation first. Nearly every athlete lifts, because strength protects joints, holds posture and makes the sport-specific skill easier to repeat without breaking down. You do not need a barbell to start, but you do need to get stronger over time. Learning the movement patterns properly matters more than the load, which is exactly what our exercise library is built to teach.
• Conditioning matched to the sport. A rower trains a long engine; a fencer trains sharp, repeated bursts. For most gym-goers the useful middle ground is interval work that lifts your capacity to repeat effort, recover, and go again. A structured HIIT session gives you that in far less time than long, flat cardio.
• A plan, and someone to hold it. The reason a 23-sport delegation looks organised is that every athlete follows a periodised plan that builds, peaks and recovers on a schedule. You can copy the principle. Working with one of our personal trainers is the fastest way to turn random sessions into a plan that actually progresses.
• Recovery is training. The Games squad will taper before Japan, sleep on a schedule and manage load carefully. Rest days and sleep are where the work sticks, not a sign you are slacking.

The lesson from a delegation this size is not to chase every sport at once. It is the opposite. Pick the thing you want to be good at, build a strength and conditioning base under it, and give it a real plan. That is how the athletes flying to Nagoya got there, and it is available to anyone in a gym here.

Bring the Asian Games energy into your week

You will not be lining up in Nagoya, but the training that gets athletes there is the same training that makes an ordinary week feel better. Try GymNation with a free day pass and see how a proper strength and conditioning session fits your own goals.

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Sources:
aletihad.ae
en.wikipedia.org
mediaoffice.abudhabi

The opinions shared in the GymNation blog articles are solely those of the respective authors and may not represent the perspectives of GymNation or any member of the GymNation team.