Netflix launches Physical: Asia, a cross-nation competition featuring contestants from eight countries

Physical: Asia premiered on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, only on Netflix, featuring 48 global athletes, legends, and icons performing grueling challenges, fighting for national pride.

It is the first international spin-off of the popular South Korean reality series Physical: 100, which featured 100 contestants, including women and men, engaging in head-to-head challenges that tested their physical and mental strength, endurance, willpower, and strategy.

The new Netflix show Physical: Asia features a competition between eight teams representing eight different countries chosen for their passion for sports and distinct characteristics. Therefore, a showdown of national pride would be featured for the first time in the Olympic-style competition series.

The format remains almost the same as the original. The weakest contestant will get eliminated in each challenge, and the one who reaches the last will win the title, along with the prize of 1 billion Korean won.

Netflix describes it as:

Elite athletes from eight countries battle for national pride. After grueling tests of raw strength and endurance, only one flag can claim victory.

Here are the contestants in eight teams participating in Physical: Asia season 1 on Netflix

The athletes are divided into eight teams with six contestants in each team representing their home countries: Korea, Japan, Thailand, Mongolia, Türkiye, Indonesia, Australia, and the Philippines. 

An athletic superstar of their country would lead each six-person team. They will collide in a high-stakes competition of strength, strategy, and teamwork for nothing less than national pride. The teams are:

1.) Team South Korea

Leader: UFC welterweight fighter star Dong-hyun “Stun Gun” Kim (also featured in season two of Physical: 100)

Season two winner Amotti

Wrestler Jang Eun-sil (also appeared in season one)

Skeleton racer and Olympic gold medallist Yun Sung-bin

CrossFit athlete Choi Seung-yeon

Wrestling champion Kim Min-jae.

2.) Team Philippines

Leader: Boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, the only eight-division world champion in history.

MMA star Mark “Mugen” Striegl

Strongman Ray Jefferson Querubin

Rugby star Justin Coveney

 Olympic athlete Robyn Lauren Brown

CrossFit athlete Lara Liwanag.

3.) Team Japan

Leader: MMA fighter Yushin Okami

Baseball player Yoshio “Superhuman” Itoi

Swimmer Katsumi Nakamura

Judo fighter Soichi Hashimoto

Wrestler Nonoka Ozaki

MMA fighter Kana Watanabe.

4.) Team Thailand

Leader: Muay Thai champion Superbon, the current No. 2 pound-for-pound kickboxer in the world. 

Boxer James Rusameekae

Rugby athlete Sunny Kerdkao Wechokittikorn

Wrestler Anucha Yospanya

Bodybuilder Ploy Nuannaree Olsen

CrossFit athlete Jar Uracha Teerawanitsan.

5.) Team Indonesia

Leader: Bodybuilding champion and Mr Indonesia 2018 Igede “Executioner” Dharma Susila.

Jiu-jitsu athlete Fina Phillipe

Swimmer Glenn Victor

Athlete Jeremiah Lakhwani

Badminton player Marcus Gideon

Basketball player Maria Selena.

6.) Team Mongolia

Leader: Wrestling champion Orkhonbayar Bayarsaikhan

MMA fighter Enkh-Orgil Baatarkhuu

Judoka Adiyasuren Amarsaikhan

Basketball player Dulguun Enkhbat

Volleyball player Khandsuren Gantogtokh

Contortionist Lkhagva-Ochir Erdene-Ochirn.

7.) Team Turkey

Leader: Four-time oil wrestling champion Recep Kara

Freestyle wrestler Yasemin Adar Yigit

Karate athlete Ali Sofuoglu

Sailor Anil Berk Baki

Rower Ogeday Girisken

Athlete Nefise Karatay.

8.) Team Australia

Leader: UFC middleweight champion Robert “The Reaper” Whittaker

Rugby player Eloni Vunakece

Fitness coach Alexandra Milne

Strongman Eddie Williams

Parkour athlete Dom Tomato,

Hyrox athlete Katelin Van Zyl

Episodes 1-4 of Physical: Asia are streaming on Netflix. The remaining eight episodes will be released weekly every Tuesday, with episodes 5-6 premiering on November 4, 2025, until the 12-episode series is complete.

Stay tuned for more updates.