A total of 489 athletes representing 11 Asian National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in 57 events from eight sports and discipline.

The official logo of the First Asiad depicted a bright sun in red with 16 rays and a white circle in the middle of the disc of the sun and eleven rings, representing each participating nation, on a white background, symbolising peace.

The First Western Asiatic Games was celebrated in Delhi in 1934 at the Irwin Amphitheater, in which four countries—Afghanistan, British India, Palestine Mandate and Ceylon—participated.

[5][6] On 12 and 13 February 1949, a meeting was organized at the Patiala House, in Delhi, in between the representatives of nine Asian National Olympic Committees.

HRH Yadavindra Singh and Guru Dutt Sondhi were respectively elected as the first president and the secretary of the federation.

[7][8][9] The responsibility of organizing the First Asian Games was assigned to a special committee that included Anthony de Mello;[10] the Maharaja of Patiala/ president of the Indian Olympic Association Yadavindra Singh; Indian Olympic Association Secretary Guru Dutt Sondhi; and officials playing a key role such as S. Bhoot, Nariman Saugar who did much work with the stadium, and others.

The Organizing Committee was: President: Yadavindra Singh, Maharaja of Patiala; Director: Anthony de Mello; Hon.

Chopra; Members: General K. M. Cariappa, Sir Girja Shankar Bajpai / ICS, Nawab of Pataudi, Maharajakumar of Visianagaram, S. V. Mavlankar, Pt.

Moin-ul Haq, Raja Bhalindra Singh, Maharajadhiraj Sir Uday Chand Mahtab, C.C.

The Executive Committee was: Chairman: G. D. Sondhi; Members: P. C. Choudhuri, Krishna Prasada, Moin-ul Haq, S.S. Mathur, Rameshwar Dayal.

Menon; Technical: G.D. Sondhi; Housing and Transport: Maj. Gen. V.R.Khanolkar; Medical: Maj. M. S. Chadha; Arts: B. Ukil; Reception: Shankar Lal; Publicity: Deva Das Gandhi The principal Executive members were: Director of Organisation Anthony de Mello; Secretary to the Director S.S. Dhawan; Public Relations Officer M. L. Kapur; Publicity Officer D. I. Sequeira; Assistant Secretary Nariman S. Saugar.

[5][8] The stadium was designed by Anthony S. DeMello and five-hundred thousand (500,000) rupees were required for the full construction, which was completed on 13 February 1933.

[13] The Games featured six sports: Athletics, aquatics—broken into Diving, swimming, and water polo disciplines—basketball, cycling—road cycling and track cycling—football, and weightlifting.

[17] In swimming, five nations sent their swimmers to participate in 8 events, 5 of freestyle (100 m, 400 m, 800 m, 1500 m, and 4 × 100 m relay) and one of each backstroke (100 m), breaststroke (200 m) and medley (3 × 100 m).

The only match of the tournament decided the winner, in which the Indian team defeated Singapore with a goal difference of 6 to 4.

Lavy Pinto of India was the only man who achieved multiple gold medals, he finished at the top podium in men's 100 m and 200 m sprint running events.

In the matches, the round-robin format was employed and on the basis of final points table top three podium places were decided.

Indian cyclists won all the rest 3 medals as Burma and Iran failed to achieve a single one.

[14][25] In the following calendar for the 1951 Asian Games, each blue box represents an event competition, such as a qualification round, on that day.

A 31-gun salute was fired from the ramparts of the Purana Quila, adjacent to the National Stadium, in the honour of guests and participants of first Asian Games.

[8][26] The first Asian Games will promote the realisation of understanding and friendship among all nations and will start a process which, as time passes, will go on cementing the friendly ties between the peoples of Asia.

Fifteen of the Indian army's trumpeters with flags of eleven participating countries on their mastheads gave their performance.

The Lighting of the Cauldron was done by the 1924 Olympian of India, Dalip Singh with the help of Asian Games torch, which had been lit by the sun's rays in the Red Fort.

[32] Singaporean swimmer Neo Chwee Kok earned the honour of winning the first gold medal in the history of the Asian Games.

[33] He won a total of four golds, all in the free style events (400m, 800m, 1500m, and 4 × 100m relay); becoming the most medalled athlete in this Games.