Southeast Asian Games

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

History

The Southeast Asian Games owes its origins to the South East Asian Peninsula 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 sport organisation. The SEAP Games was conceptualised 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.

Thailand, Burma (now Myanmar), Malaya (now Malaysia), Laos, South Vietnam and Cambodia (with Singapore included thereafter) were the founding members. These countries agreed to hold the Games biennially. The SEAP Games Federation Committee was formed.

The first SEAP Games were held in Bangkok from 12–17 December 1959 comprising more than 527 athletes and officials from Thailand, Burma, Malaya (now Malaysia), Singapore, South Vietnam and Laos participating 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 Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF), and the games were known as the Southeast Asian Games. East Timor was admitted at the 22nd Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam.

The 2009 Southeast Asian Games was the first time Laos has ever hosted a Southeast Asian Games (Laos had previously declined hosting 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.

The most recent host for the Games was Myanmar in 2013, while Singapore will host the upcoming Games. Cambodia is yet to host the SEA games. At first starting 2019, the Asian Games will fall on the same year as the Southeast Asian Games but Vietnam then declined to host the 2019 Asian Games.

Participating countries

Nation / IOC Designation	Debuted	IOC-Code	Notes
Cambodia	1959	CAM	—
Laos (IOC designation: Lao People's Democratic Republic)	1959	LAO	—
Malaysia	1959	MAS	—
Burma	1959	MYA	BIR 1948–1992
Singapore	1959	SIN	—
Thailand	1959	THA	—
Vietnam (IOC designation: Viet Nam)	1959	VIE	—
Brunei (IOC designation: Brunei Darussalam)	1977	BRU	—
Indonesia	1977	INA	IHO 1952 FIFA-code IDN
Philippines	1977	PHI	ISO PHL
Timor-Leste	2003	TLS	IOA 2000

Sports

Below was the list of the types of sports played in the SEAG from 1959. the bullet mark (•) indicates that the sport was played in the respective year.

• ¹ – not an official Olympic Sport.
• ² – sport played only in the SEAG.
• ³ – not a traditional Olympic nor SEAG Sport and introduced only by the host country.
• ⁴ – Beach volleyball was introduced in 1993.
• ^o – a former official Olympic Sport, not applied in previous host countries and was introduced only by the host country.
• ^h – sport not played in the previous edition and was reintroduced by the host country.
• ^e – Netball was included in 2001.^[1]

Editions

1st, 4th, 8th, 13th

2nd, 5th

3rd*, 32nd

3rd, 6th, 9th, 15th, 21st, 29th

7th, 12th, 17th, 28th

10th, 14th, 19th, 26th

11th, 16th, 23rd

18th

20th, 30th

22nd

22nd, 31st

24th

25th

26th

27th

29th

33rd

Location of the Southeast Asian Games Host

Year	Games	Host city	Winner (gold)	2nd (gold)	3rd (gold)
Southeast Asian Peninsular Games
1959	I	Bangkok	Thailand (35)	Burma (11)	Malaya (8)
1961	II	Rangoon	Burma (35)	Thailand (21)	Malaya (16)
1963	III*	Phnom Penh	Cancelled
1965	III	Kuala Lumpur	Thailand (38)	Malaysia (33)	Singapore (18)
1967	IV	Bangkok	Thailand (77)	Singapore (28)	Malaysia (23)
1969	V	Rangoon	Burma (57)	Thailand (32)	Singapore (31)
1971	VI	Kuala Lumpur	Thailand (44)	Malaysia (41)	Singapore (32)
1973	VII	Singapore	Thailand (47)	Singapore (45)	Malaysia (30)
1975	VIII	Bangkok	Thailand (80)	Singapore (38)	Burma (28)
Southeast Asian Games
19771	IX	Kuala Lumpur	Indonesia (62)	Thailand (37)	Philippines (31)
1979	X	Jakarta	Indonesia (92)	Thailand (50)	Burma (26)
1981	XI	Manila	Indonesia (85)	Thailand (62)	Philippines (55)
1983	XII	Singapore	Indonesia (64)	Philippines (49)	Thailand (49)
1985	XIII	Bangkok	Thailand (92)	Indonesia (62)	Philippines (43)
1987	XIV	Jakarta	Indonesia (183)	Thailand (63)	Philippines (59)
1989	XV	Kuala Lumpur	Indonesia (102)	Malaysia (67)	Thailand (62)
1991	XVI	Manila	Indonesia (92)	Philippines (90)	Thailand (72)
1993	XVII	Singapore	Indonesia (88)	Thailand (63)	Philippines (57)
1995	XVIII	Chiang Mai2	Thailand (157)	Indonesia (77)	Philippines (33)
1997	XIX	Jakarta	Indonesia (194)	Thailand (83)	Malaysia (55)
1999	XX	Bandar Seri Begawan	Thailand (65)	Malaysia (57)	Indonesia (44)
2001	XXI	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia (111)	Thailand (103)	Indonesia (72)
2003	XXII	Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City3	Vietnam (158)	Thailand (90)	Indonesia (55)
2005	XXIII	Manila4	Philippines (113)	Thailand (87)	Vietnam (71)
2007	XXIV	Nakhon Ratchasima5	Thailand (183)	Malaysia (68)	Vietnam (64)
2009	XXV	Vientiane	Thailand (86)	Vietnam (83)	Indonesia (43)
2011	XXVI	Palembang and Jakarta6	Indonesia (182)	Thailand (109)	Vietnam (96)
2013	XXVII	Naypyidaw	Thailand (107)	Myanmar (86)	Vietnam (73)
2015	XXVIII	Singapore
2017	XXIX	Kuala Lumpur and Kuching7[2]
2019	XXX	Bandar Seri Begawan[3]
2021	XXXI	Ho Chi Minh City[4]
2023	XXXII	Phnom Penh[5]
2025	XXXIII	Bocaue[6]

• ¹ – Changed name when Brunei, the Philippines & Indonesia were admitted.
• ² – It was the first time in SEAG history that a non-capital city hosted the biennial sports event.
• ³ – It was the first time in SEAG history that the game venues were assigned into two cities namely Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Other locales hosting the games are Hai Phong, Hải Dương, Nam Định, Ninh Bình, Phú Thọ, Vĩnh Phúc, Bắc Ninh and Hòa Bình.
• ⁴ – Other locales that hosted the games are several cities within Metro Manila, Los Baños and Calamba City in Laguna, Cebu, Bacolod, Angeles and Subic, Zambales.
• ⁵ – The City of Chonburi and Bangkok are among the places were the 24th SEA Games held.
• ⁶ – Palembang is the main host for the games, Jakarta is the supporting co-host.
• ⁷ – Kuala Lumpur is the main host for the games, Kuching is the supporting co-host.

Gold medal tally

Country Overall winners 2nd Gold 3rd Gold  Thailand 6 Times 2 Times —  Burma 2 Times 1 Time 1 Time  Singapore — 3 Times 3 Times  Malaysia — 2 Times 4 Times Winning tallies only includes the results from 1959 to 1975.

Country Overall winners 2nd Gold 3rd Gold  Indonesia 10 Times 2 Times 4 Times  Thailand 6 Times 10 Times 3 Times  Philippines 1 Time 2 Times 6 Times  Malaysia 1 Time 3 Times 1 Time  Vietnam 1 Time 1 Time 4 Times  Burma — 1 Time 1 Time  Brunei — — —  Cambodia — — —  Laos — — —  Singapore — — —  Timor-Leste — — —

Hosting tally

Hosting tallies from 1959 to 1975.

Country	Event hosted	Year hosted
Thailand	3	1959, 1967, 1975
Malaysia	2	1965, 1971
Burma	2	1961, 1969
Singapore	1	1973
Cambodia	—	19632
Laos	—	—
South Vietnam	—	—
Hosting tallies from 1959 to 1975.

Country	Event hosted	Year hosted
Indonesia	4	1979, 1987, 1997, 2011
Malaysia	3	1977, 1989, 2001, (2017)
Thailand	3	1985, 1995, 2007
Philippines	3	1981, 1991, 2005, (2025)
Singapore	2	1983, 1993, (2015)1,3
Brunei	1	1999, (2019)1
Vietnam	1	2003, (2021)1
Laos	1	2009
Myanmar	1	2013
Cambodia	—	(2023)1
Timor-Leste	—	—
Hosting tallies from SEA games 1977–present.

• ¹ – Only hosted events are counted, the future events are in bracket.
• ² – Cambodia was to host the 3rd Southeast Asian Peninsular Games but cancelled due to unsettling circumstances.
• ³ – Singapore was assigned to host the 27th Southeast Asian Games but it chose to give up the rights later.

All-time medal count

As of the 2013 Southeast Asian Games.

Southeast Asian Peninsular Games Country 01 ! Gold 02 ! Silver 03 ! Bronze Total  Thailand 374 254 261 889  Singapore 204 229 221 654  Burma 198 207 214 619  Malaya 195 255 316 765  South Vietnam2 39 51 65 155  Khmer Republic 27 36 41 104  Laos 0 6 23 29

Southeast Asian Games Country 01 ! Gold 02 ! Silver 03 ! Bronze Total  Indonesia 1667 1497 1507 4670  Thailand 1620 1412 1396 4428  Philippines 865 1005 1229 3099  Malaysia 848 810 1144 2802  Vietnam 659 626 704 1989  Singapore 542 588 886 2016  Myanmar 335 472 664 1471  Laos 66 77 219 362  Cambodia 19 37 132 188  Brunei 11 39 126 176  Timor-Leste 3 4 17 24

Combined totals

Country	01 ! Gold	02 ! Silver	03 ! Bronze	Total
Thailand	1994	1656	1657	5307
Indonesia	1667	1497	1506	4670
Malaysia1	1043	1065	1460	3567
Philippines	865	1005	1229	3099
Singapore	746	817	1107	2670
Vietnam4	698	677	769	2144
Myanmar5	533	679	879	2091
Laos	66	81	238	385
Cambodia3	46	83	173	302
Brunei	11	39	126	176
Timor-Leste	3	4	17	24

• ¹ – Competed as Malaya in the inaugural games until 1961.
• ² – 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. International Olympic Committee (IOC) is not using codes for South Vietnam any more after unifying with North Vietnam.
• ³ – Competed as Cambodia, Kampuchea, and Khmer Republic.
• ⁴ – In the 1989 edition, a unified Vietnam rejoined the games with new name and new flag. Medals made by South Vietnam are already combined here. See table tally above for South Vietnam.
• ⁵ – Competed as Burma until 1987.

Criticism

The games is unique in that there are no official limits to the number of sports which may be contested, and the range may be decided by the organising host pending approval by the Southeast Asian Games Federation. Albeit for some core sports which must be featured, the host is also free to drop or introduce other sports.

This leeway has resulted in hosts maximising their medal hauls by dropping sports which are disadvantages to themselves relative to their peers, and the introduction of obscure sports, often at short notice, thus preventing most other nations from building up credible opponents. Some examples of these include:

• At the 2001 Southeast Asian Games, Malaysia introduced pétanque, lawn bowls and netball.
• At the 2003 Southeast Asian Games, Vietnam added fin swimming, shuttlecock, and added wushu event to 33 golds from 16 in 2001.
• In the 2005 Southeast Asian Games, the Philippines added arnis, a demonstration sport in 2003, with 6 sets of medals and it won 3 gold medals.
• At the 2007 Southeast Asian Games, Thailand added some new categories of sepak takraw and used a new kind of ball that had been used by their athletes for a year while other countries had never used it before.In the other that,Futsal was added,too.Thailand won nearly all sets of medal from that discipline.^[7]
• In the 2011 Southeast Asian Games, Indonesia dropped the team events in table tennis and shrunk the shooting events to just 14 golds from 19 in 2009 and 33 in 2007. At the same time, bridge, kenpō, paragliding, vovinam and wall climbing were introduced.
• In the 2013 Southeast Asian Games, Myanmar introduced local sports Chinlone. The host went on to win 6 out of 8 gold medals in the event.
• Floorball was demonstrated by Singapore in the 2013 Southeast Asian Games and then was officially added in the 2015 Southeast Asian Games.

See also

• ASEAN ParaGames
• East Asian Games
• Asian Games
• ASEAN School Games
• Far Eastern Championship Games

References

External links

• Olympic Council of Asia Regional Hosting List
• Southeast Asian Games Information
• SEAP Games Federation

Events of the Olympic Council of Asia Sports NOCs Mascots Continental Asian Games Asian Beach Games Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games Asian Winter Games Asian Youth Games Regional Central Asian Games East Asian Games South Asian Games Southeast Asian Games West Asian Games Defunct Afro-Asian Games2 Asian Indoor Games1 Asian Martial Arts Games1 1 Merged to form Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.2 Inter-continental event involving Asia and Africa.