2002 Asian Games medal table

The 2002 Asian Games (officially known as the 14th Asian Games) was a multi-sport event held in Busan, South Korea from September 29 to October 14, 2002. Busan was the second South Korean city to host the Games, after Seoul in 1986. A total of 6,572 athletes—4,605 men and 1,967 women—from 44 Asian National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in 38 sports divided into 419 events. The number of competing athletes was higher than the 1998 Asian Games, in which 6,544 athletes from 41 NOCs participated.^[1][2][3] It was the first time in the history of the Asian Games that all 44 member nations of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) participated in the Games. Afghanistan returned after the fall of the Taliban government in the midst of ongoing war; East Timor, newest member of the OCA made its debut; and North Korea competed for the first time in an international sporting event hosted by South Korea. Both nations marched together at the opening ceremony with a Korean Unification Flag depicting the Korean Peninsula as United Korea.^[4]

Athletes from 39 nations won at least one medal, and athletes from 27 of these nations secured at least one gold. Eight NOCs—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, India, Singapore, Vietnam, Qatar, Philippines and Kyrgyzstan—improved their position in the general medal table compared to the 1998 Asian Games.^[5] China topped the medal table for the sixth consecutive time in the Asian Games, with 150 gold medals.^[6] Athletes from China won the most silver medals (84) and the most medals overall (308). China became the first nation in the history of Asian Games to cross the 300 medal-mark in one edition.^[6] Competitors from the South Korea led the bronze medal count with 84. South Korea also won 96 gold medals, 80 silver medals and a total of 260 medals, finishing second on the medal table. Japanese athletes claimed 189 medals in total (including 44 gold), earning third spot on the table.