11-Year-Old Kurihara Wins Asian Games Esports Gold for Japan
Japan's Yuki Kurihara became the youngest gold medallist in Asian Games history on September 26, 2026, winning the Puyo Puyo Champions esports final at the Aichi-Nagoya Games at just 11 years old. He beat opponents up to three times his age on the way to the title.
Kurihara, an elementary school student, beat South Korea's Kang Dongshin 10-2 in the Puyo Puyo Champions final on home soil in Aichi Prefecture. He had already secured at least a silver medal by beating Thailand's Tanarak Wongkitkun, 28, 10-1 in the semi-finals.
Kurihara said he felt "embarrassed" during the final, adding: "To be completely honest, I felt a bit embarrassed, so I couldn't really show my expressions or change my face much."
He does not turn 12 until June 2027 and is the youngest athlete in Japan's Asian Games history, as well as the youngest competitor at the 2026 Games overall. His win was Japan's first Asian Games gold in esports. Puyo Puyo Champions was one of 11 esports medal events on the programme at Aichi-Nagoya, where esports has now featured across the last two editions of the Games.
Started Playing Early
Kurihara took up Puyo Puyo, a puzzle game in which players clear their screen of coloured blobs by lining them up and popping them, in his first year of primary school before moving into competitive play.
He secured his place on Japan's Asian Games roster at age 10. Japanese media have reported that he trains for around eight hours a day while keeping up his schoolwork, and that he eats eel as part of his pre-competition routine, according to The Japan Times.
"I'm really happy," Kurihara said after the final. "The gold medal is really beautiful, shiny and heavy."
A Prodigy Story
Kurihara's win drew heavy mainstream coverage in Japan, including front-page newspaper treatment, the kind of crossover attention that helps esports build the wider, non-niche audience sportsbooks look for when deciding which competitions to price up.
Puzzle titles like Puyo Puyo Champions sit outside the shooter and MOBA titles that dominate commercial esports betting markets, but stories like Kurihara's widen the audience the Asian Games esports programme reaches beyond core esports fans.
His result also lands amid an unresolved dispute over whether esports will remain part of the Asian Games programme after this year's Aichi-Nagoya Games, following a September 28, 2026 denial from the Olympic Council of Asia that it plans to drop the discipline. The next edition of the Asian Games is scheduled for Doha, Qatar in 2030.
