Southeast Asian Games

Southeast Asian Games

The Southeast Asian Games Federation logo
Abbreviation	SEA Games
First event	1959 Southeast Asian Peninsular Games in Bangkok, Thailand
Occur every	2 years (every odd year)
Next event	2021 Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam
Purpose	Multi sport event for nations on the Southeast Asian subcontinent
Headquarters	Bangkok, Thailand
President	Charouck Arirachakaran
Website	SEAGFOffice.org

The Southeast Asian Games, also known as the SEA Games (SEAG), is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with supervision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).

The Southeast Asian Games is one of the five subregional Games of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). The others are the Central Asian Games, the East Asian Youth Games, the South Asian Games, and the West Asian Games.^[1]

History[]

The Southeast Asian Games owes its origins to the South East Asian Peninsular Games or SEAP Games. On 22 May 1958, delegates from the countries in Southeast Asian Peninsula attending the Asian Games in Tokyo, Japan had a meeting and agreed to establish a sports organization. The SEAP Games was conceptualized by Luang Sukhum Nayaoradit, then Vice-President of the Thailand Olympic Committee. The proposed rationale was that a regional sports event will help promote co-operation, understanding, and relations among countries in the Southeast Asian region.

Six countries, Burma (now Myanmar), Kampuchea (now Cambodia), Laos, Malaya (now Malaysia), Thailand and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) were the founding members. These countries agreed to hold the Games biennially in June 1959 and the SEAP Games Federation Committee was formed thereafter.^[2]

The first SEAP Games were held in Bangkok from 12–17 December 1959, with more than 527 athletes and officials from 6 countries; Burma (now Myanmar), Laos, Malaya, Singapore, South Vietnam and Thailand participated in 12 sports.

At the 8th SEAP Games in 1975, the SEAP Federation considered the inclusion of Brunei, Indonesia, and the Philippines. These countries were formally admitted in 1977, the same year when SEAP Federation changed their name to the Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF), and the games were known as the Southeast Asian Games. Despite its location closer to the Pacific archipelago than the Asian continent and not being a member of ASEAN, East Timor was admitted at the 22nd Southeast Asian Games in 2003 Hanoi–Ho Chi Minh City.

The 2009 Southeast Asian Games was the first time Laos has ever hosted a Southeast Asian Games (Laos had previously declined to host the 1965 Southeast Asian Peninsular Games citing financial difficulties). Running from 9–18 December, it has also commemorated the 50 years of the Southeast Asian Games, held in Vientiane, Laos.

Logo[]

The Southeast Asian Games logo was introduced during the 1959 edition in Bangkok, depicting six rings that represent the six founding members and was used until the 1997 edition in Jakarta. The number of rings increased to 10 during the 1999 edition in Brunei to reflect the inclusion of Singapore which was admitted into the Southeast Asian Games Federation in 1961 and Brunei, Indonesia, and the Philippines which joined the organization in 1977. The number of rings was again increased to 11 during the 2011 games in Indonesia to reflect the federation's newest member, East Timor which was admitted in 2003.

Participating NOCs[]

NOC Names	Formal Names	Debuted	IOC code	Other codes used
Brunei	Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace	1977	BRU	BRN (ISO)
Cambodia	Kingdom of Cambodia	1961	CAM	KHM (1972–1976, ISO)
Indonesia	Republic of Indonesia	1977	INA	IHO (1952), IDN (FIFA, ISO)
Laos	Lao People's Democratic Republic	1959	LAO
Malaysia	Federation of Malaysia	1959	MAS	MAL (1952 − 1988), MYS (ISO)
Myanmar	Republic of the Union of Myanmar	1959	MYA	BIR (1948 – 1988), MMR (ISO)
Philippines	Republic of the Philippines	1977	PHI	PHL (ISO)
Singapore	Republic of Singapore	1959	SGP	SIN (1959 – 2016)
Thailand	Kingdom of Thailand	1959	THA
Timor-Leste	Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste	2003	TLS	IOA (2000)
Vietnam	Socialist Republic of Vietnam	1959	VIE	VET (1964), VNM (1968–1976, ISO)

Host nations and cities[]

Since the Southeast Asian Games began in 1959, it has been held in 15 cities across all Southeast Asian countries except Cambodia and East Timor.

List of Southeast Asian Games

Games	Year	Host country	Opened by	Date	Sports	Events	Nations	Competitors	Top-ranked team	Ref
Southeast Asian Peninsular Games
1	1959	Bangkok, Thailand	King Bhumibol Adulyadej	12–17 December	12	N/A	6	518	(THA)	[1]
2	1961	Yangon, Burma	President Win Maung	11–16 December	13	N/A	7	623	(BIR)	[2]
1963		Awarded to Cambodia, cancelled due to domestic political situation
3	1965	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Ismail Nasiruddin	14–21 December	14	N/A	6	963	(THA)	[3]
4	1967	Bangkok, Thailand	King Bhumibol Adulyadej	9–16 December	16	N/A	6	984	(THA)	[4]
5	1969	Yangon, Burma	Prime Minister Ne Win	6–13 December	15	N/A	6	920	(BIR)	[5]
6	1971	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Abdul Halim	6–13 December	15	N/A	7	957	(THA)	[6]
7	1973	Singapore	President Benjamin Sheares	1–8 September	16	N/A	7	1632	(THA)	[7]
8	1975	Bangkok, Thailand	King Bhumibol Adulyadej	9–16 December	18	N/A	4	1142	(THA)	[8]
Southeast Asian Games
9	1977	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Yahya Petra	19–26 November	18	N/A	7	N/A	(INA)	[9]
10	1979	Jakarta, Indonesia	President Suharto	21–30 September	18	N/A	7	N/A	(INA)	[10]
11	1981	Manila, Philippines	President Ferdinand Marcos	6–15 December	18	N/A	7	≈1800	(INA)	[11]
12	1983	Singapore	President Devan Nair	28 May – 6 June	18	N/A	8	N/A	(INA)	[12]
13	1985	Bangkok, Thailand	King Bhumibol Adulyadej	8–17 December	18	N/A	8	N/A	(THA)	[13]
14	1987	Jakarta, Indonesia	President Suharto	9–20 September	26	N/A	8	N/A	(INA)	[14]
15	1989	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Azlan Shah	20–31 August	24	N/A	9	≈2800	(INA)	[15]
16	1991	Manila, Philippines	President Corazon Aquino	24 November – 3 December	28	N/A	9	N/A	(INA)	[16]
17	1993	Singapore	President Wee Kim Wee	12–20 June	29	N/A	9	≈3000	(INA)	[17]
18	1995	Chiang Mai, Thailand	Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn	9–17 December	28	N/A	10	3262	(THA)	[18]
19	1997	Jakarta, Indonesia	President Suharto	11–19 October	36	490	10	5179	(INA)	[19]
20	1999	Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei	Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah	7–15 August	21	233	10	2365	(THA)	[20]
21	2001	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Salahuddin	8–17 September	32	391	10	4165	Malaysia (MAS)	[21]
22	2003	Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam	Prime Minister Phan Văn Khải	5–13 December	32	442	11	≈5000	Vietnam (VIE)	[22]
23	2005	Manila, Philippines	President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo	27 November – 5 December	40	443	11	5336	Philippines (PHI)	[23]
24	2007	Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand	Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn	6–15 December	43	475	11	5282	Thailand (THA)	[24]
25	2009	Vientiane, Laos	President Choummaly Sayasone	9–18 December	29	372	11	3100	Thailand (THA)	[25]
26	2011	Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia	President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono	11–22 November	44	545	11	5965	Indonesia (INA)	[26]
27	2013	Naypyidaw, Myanmar	Vice President Nyan Tun	11–22 December	37	460	11	4730	Thailand (THA)	[27]
28	2015	Singapore	President Tony Tan	5–16 June	36	402	11	4370	Thailand (THA)	[28]
29	2017	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Muhammad V	19–30 August	38	404	11	4709	Malaysia (MAS)	[29]
30	2019	Philippines[3]	President Rodrigo Duterte	30 November – 11 December	56	530	11	5630	Philippines (PHI)	[30]
31	2021	Hanoi, Vietnam	Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính (expected)	12–23 May 2022	40	526	Future event
32	2023	Phnom Penh, Cambodia	King Norodom Sihamoni (expected)	5—16 May	Future event
33	2025	Bangkok, Thailand[4]	King Vajiralongkorn (expected)	TBC	Future event
	2027	Indonesia	TBD	10–21 December	Future event
	2029	Laos[5]	TBD	Future event

The 1963 Southeast Asian Peninsular Games were canceled. As the designated host, Cambodia was not able to host the event due to instability in the country, along with a disagreement with the International Amateur Athletic Federation. The 3rd SEAP Games then passed to Laos as hosts, but they begged off the 1965 event citing financial difficulties.^[6]

Sports[]

According to the SEAGF Charter and Rules, a host nation must stage a minimum of 22 sports: the two compulsory sports from Category 1 (athletics and aquatics), in addition to a minimum of 14 sports from Category 2 (Olympics and Asian Games mandatory sports), and a maximum of 8 sports from Category 3 (shaded grey in the table below). Each sport shall not offer more than 5% of the total medal tally, except for athletics, aquatics and shooting (the shot was elevated for this category in 2013). For each sport and event to be included, a minimum of four countries must participate in it. Sports competed in the Olympic Games and Asian Games must be given priority.^[2][7]

Sport Years Archery 1977–1997, since 2001 Arnis 1991, 2005, 2019 Athletics All Badminton All Baseball 2005–2007, 2011, since 2019 Basketball 1979–2003, 2007, since 2011 Billiards and snooker Since 1991 Bodybuilding 1987–1993, 1997, 2003–2007, 2013 Bowling 1977–1979, 1983–2001, 2005–2007, 2011, since 2015 All 1985, 1995, 2001, 2005–2007, 2011–2015, since 2019 2003–2005, 2011–2013, since 2019 2013 only Contract bridge 2011 only Cricket 2017 only 1959-1979, since 1983 2005–2009, since 2019 Since 1965 Duathlon Since 2019 eSports Since 2019 1983, 1995, 2001, 2005–2007, 2011–2017 1974–1978, since 1986 1971–1979, 1983, 1987–1989, 1993–2001, 2007, 2013–2017 Figure skating Since 2017 2003, 2009–2011 2015, 2019 Football All Futsal 2007, 2011–2013, 2017 1985–1997, 2001, since 2005 1979–1981, 1985–1997, 2001–2007, 2011, since 2015 Handball 2005–2007 Since 2019 Ice hockey Since 2017 Indoor hockey Since 2017 Ju-jitsu Since 2019 1967–1997, since 2001 Karate 1985–1991, 1995–1997, 2001–2013, 2017 Kenpō 2011–2013 Kickboxing Since 2019 Kurash Since 2019 1997, 2001, 2005–2007, Since 2017 Modern pentathlon Since 2019 2005–2009, 2013, Since 2019 Netball 2001, since 2015 Obstacle racing Since 2019 Paragliding 2011 only 1987–1989, 1993–1997, since 2001 Since 2001 2007, Since 2017 Roller sports 2011 only 1989–1991, 1997, 2001–2007, 2011–2015, since 2019 1969, 1977–1979, 1995, 2007 Since 2015 1961, 1967–1971, 1975–1977, 1983–1997, 2001, 2005–2007, since 2011 Sambo Since 2019 1967–1969, since 1973 All Short track speed skating since 2017 2007–2009 Skateboarding Since 2019 Sport climbing 2011 only 1981–1983, 1989, 2003–2005, 2011, 2015, since 2019 Soft tennis 2011, since 2019 1991–2001, 2005–2007, since 2015 Swimming All Surfing Since 2019 2001, 2011, since 2015 Table tennis All Since 1985 Tennis 1959–2011, since 2015 Traditional boat race 1993, 1997–1999, 2003–2007, 2011–2015 Triathlon 2005–2007, since 2015 Volleyball 1959–1997, since 2001 2011–2013 1965–2017 1987, 1997, 2011, 2015–2017 Wakeboarding Since 2019 1959–1997, 2001–2013, since 2017 1987, 1997, 2003–2013, since 2019 1991–1993, 1997, since 2001

All-time medal table[]

Corrected after balancing the data of the Olympic Council of Asia and other archived sites which had kept the previous Southeast Asian Games medal tables. Some information from the aforementioned sites are missing, incorrect and or not updated.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]}

All-time Southeast Asian Games medal table^[1]

Rank	NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Thailand (THA)	1885	1930	1943	5758
2	Indonesia (INA)	1824	1703	1780	5307
3	Malaysia (MAS)[2]	1303	1273	1685	4261
4	Philippines (PHI)	1067	1193	1477	3737
5	(SGP)	947	1002	1363	3312
6	Vietnam (VIE)[3]	928	967	991	2886
7	Myanmar (MYA)[4]	564	741	992	2297
8	Cambodia (CAM)[5]	69	115	258	442
9	(LAO)	69	93	319	481
10	Brunei (BRU)	14	55	163	232
11	(TLS)	3	6	26	35
Totals (11 NOCs)		8673	9078	10997	28748

• ^[1] - 2017 Southeast Asian Games medal counts are not yet included in these medal standings due to ongoing doping cases during those games
• ^[2] – Competed as Malaya in the inaugural games until 1961.
• ^[3] – The Republic of Vietnam was dissolved in July 1976 when it merged with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) to become the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, also known as Vietnam. Therefore, the medal counts for this country are considered to be as until 1975. In the 1989 edition, a unified Vietnam rejoined the games with a new name and flag. Medals won by South Vietnam are already combined here. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not use codes for South Vietnam anymore after the unification with North Vietnam.
• ^[4] – Competed as Burma until 1987.
• ^[5] – Competed as Kampuchea, and Khmer Republic.

List of multiple Southeast Asian Games medalists[]

Various individuals have won multiple medals at the Games, including the preceding Southeast Asian Peninsular Games.

As of 2019, Singaporean swimmer Joscelin Yeo has won the most Southeast Asian Games medals with 55 (40 gold, 12 silver, 3 bronze). She reached this milestone during the 2005 Games, overtaking the previous record of 39 gold medals set by another Singaporean swimmer Patricia Chan.

Criticism[]

The games are unique in that it has no official limits to the number of sports and events to be contested, and the range can be decided by the organizing host pending approval by the Southeast Asian Games Federation. Aside from mandatory sports, the host is free to drop or introduce other sports or events (See Southeast Asian Games sports).^[15]

This leeway has resulted in hosts maximizing their medal hauls by dropping sports disadvantageous to themselves relative to their peers and the introduction of obscure sports, often at short notice, thus preventing most other nations from building credible opponents.^[16][17] Examples of these include:

• At the 2001 Southeast Asian Games, Malaysia introduced pétanque, and netball.
• At the 2003 Southeast Asian Games, Vietnam added fin swimming and shuttlecock, and wushu offered 28 gold medals instead of the usual 16.
• In the 2005 Southeast Asian Games, the Philippines added arnis, a demonstration sport in 2003, with six sets of medals, and the Philippines bagged three gold medals. 2005 also saw the addition of baseball, dance sport, and softball.
• At the 2007 Southeast Asian Games, Thailand added new categories of sepak takraw. In addition, the Thai Sepak Takraw Federation decided to replace the traditional rattan ball for a rubber ball, which was uncommon in other participating countries, causing a great deal of controversy and led to Malaysia boycotting the sport. Consequently, Thailand won all 8 events. Apart from this, local organizers also added futsal in this edition of the games.^[18]
• In the 2011 Southeast Asian Games, Indonesia the organizers decided to cancel the team events in table tennis and reduced the number of events in shooting to 14, following the decisions made by the International Sports Federation to reduce the number of events in the World Championships. At the same time, bridge, kenpō, paragliding, vovinam and wall climbing were introduced.
• In the 2013 Southeast Asian Games, Myanmar introduced its indigenous sport Chinlone. The host won six of eight gold medals in the event. They also introduced board games with events on Sittuyin, a traditional Burmese board game, and chess.^[19]
• In the 2017 Southeast Asian Games, Malaysia introduced cricket, indoor hockey and three winter sport events, figure skating, short track speed skating and ice hockey.^[20]
• In the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, the Philippines added beach handball, duathlon, e-sports, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, kurash, sambo, skateboarding, surfing and wakeboarding. Certain events in Modern Pentathlon were made in non-Olympic formats.

See also[]

References[]

External links[]

• Olympic Council of Asia Regional Hosting List
• SEA Games Federation
• Medal Tally 1959-1995
• Medal Tally
• History of the SEA Games
• SEA Games previous medal table
• SEA Games members