Sudden Laundry War for Baseball Players: "Doing Laundry Ourselves at Dawn"

Lax tournament operations by the organizing committee of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games are causing growing controversies in the sport of baseball as well.

The issues extend beyond the problems with accommodations, transportation, and training environments pointed out by numerous media outlets and countries.

Players are also voicing complaints about basic hygiene and living services.

The organizing committee is not operating an athletes' village for this tournament.

Consequently, national baseball teams from various countries are staying together at a hotel in downtown Nagoya, Japan.

The problem is that basic living services are not being properly provided.

Laundry issues are particularly severe. A player from the South Korean national team vented, "While the hotel offers a laundry service, it takes several days to get the laundry back," adding, "Due to the game schedule, uniforms cannot be washed in time, so some players used coin laundromats themselves early in the tournament."

The baseball tournament features group stage matches for three consecutive days, followed by a day of rest, and then super rounds and medal matches for another three consecutive days.

Uniforms soiled from training and games need to be washed daily, but the laundry service currently provided by the organizing committee makes this difficult to keep up with.

Even so, the situation for the South Korean national team is relatively better.

When the unexpected laundry issue arose, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) independently hired an external laundry service provider to resolve the problem.

An official from the KBO stated on the 23rd, "Although players were provided with spare uniforms, issues kept arising because they could not be washed in time," and added, "Fortunately, we contracted with a nearby company and took measures so that the players could focus on training and games without any problems."

On the other hand, other teams that failed to secure separate laundry services are complaining of difficulties.

China Times reported, "After finishing their match against South Korea on the afternoon of the 21st, members of the Taiwanese national baseball team had to use coin laundromats themselves to wash their uniforms in preparation for the next day's game."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.