Kathmandu: In a surprising turn of events, the Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) and the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) have submitted separate lists of sports entries for the 2026 Asian Games, set to be held in Japan next year.

Just hours after the NOC unveiled Nepal’s entry of 30 sports at a press conference on Tuesday, the MoYS released a separate list via press statement, registering 31 sports for the same event. The deadline for submission was June 30.

However, as per international standard practice, only National Olympic Committees officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) — in Nepal’s case, the NOC led by Jeevan Ram Shrestha — are authorised to register athletes and sports for the Asian Games and the Olympics among others.

Both the NOC and the MoYS submitted 21 common sports including athletics, basketball, boxing, cricket, cycling, eSports, golf, hockey, judo, kabaddi, rugby, squash, soft tennis, swimming, tennis, table tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, and wushu.

The NOC’s list also includes archery, badminton, breaking and dance sport, baseball and softball, rafting and canoeing, kurash, modern pentathlon, skateboarding, skating, and climbing — none of which appear in the MoYS’s list.

Conversely, the MoYS registered taekwondo, gymnastics, equestrian, football, fencing, shooting, triathlon, rowing, and handball — all absent from the NOC’s submission.

At the NOC press conference, President Jeevan Ram Shrestha stated, “The sole authority to ensure participation in sports governed by the International Olympic Committee and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) rests exclusively with the Nepal Olympic Committee.”

He further noted that the NOC had formally informed the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Sports Minister Teju Lal Chaudhary and the National Sports Council (NSC) about the registration deadline.

“Despite repeated communication, the government bodies did not respond within the deadline. In accordance with the National Sports Development Act and the Olympic Charter, we requested all national sports associations to confirm their intent to participate. The NOC registered only those sports whose associations submitted official requests,” Shrestha explained.

The conflicting registrations come amid an ongoing dispute between the NOC and MoYS over the legitimacy of the NOC’s recent general assembly, which re-elected Shrestha as president for a third term and elected Rajiv Shrestha as general secretary.

When asked about the MoYS registration process, NSC member Kamal Bhattarai said, “Since we do not recognise the current NOC leadership as legitimate, we did not coordinate with them. Instead, we communicated directly with the Japan Asian Games Organising Committee, which accepted our entries by sport.” He also claimed that they had received an official confirmation letter of registration from the 20th Asian Games Organising Committee.

The 20th Asian Games to be held in Aichi-Nagoya is scheduled from September 19 to Ocotober 4, 2026.