SEA Games

The SEA Games owes its origins to the South East Asian Peninsular Games or SEAP Games (abbreviated as SEAPG). 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 Nayapradit, 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), 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 to 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 SEA Games in 2003 Hanoi–Ho Chi Minh City.

The 2009 SEA Games was the first time Laos has ever hosted a SEA Games (Laos had previously declined to host the 1965 SEAP Games citing financial difficulties). Running from 9–18 December, it has also commemorated the 50 years of the SEA Games, held in Vientiane, Laos. The 2023 SEA Games, held from 5–17 May, was the first time Cambodia has ever hosted a SEA Games (Cambodia was awarded the 1963 SEAP Games, which was cancelled due to domestic political situation).

The Southeast Asian Games symbol was introduced during the 1959 SEAP Games in Bangkok, depicting six rings that represent the six founding members and was used until the 1997 edition in Jakarta. The number of rings has 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.

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

1959, 1967, 1975, 1985, 2025

1961, 1969

1965, 1971, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2017

2027

1973, 1983, 1993, 2015, 2029

1979, 1987, 1997, 2011

1981, 1991, 2005, 2033

1995

1999

2003, 2021

2003

2007

2009, 2031

2011

2013

2019

2023

2025

2025

Location of the Southeast Asian Games host

List of Southeast Asian Games

Games	Year	Host cities	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 1959	12	67	6	518	Thailand (THA)
2	1961	Yangon, Burma	President Win Maung	11–16 December 1961	13	86	7	623	Burma (BIR)
1963		Awarded to Cambodia, cancelled due to domestic political situation
3	1965	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Ismail Nasiruddin	14–21 December 1965	14	134	7	963	Thailand (THA)
4	1967	Bangkok, Thailand	King Bhumibol Adulyadej	9–16 December 1967	16	144	6	984	Thailand (THA)
5	1969	Yangon, Burma	Prime Minister Ne Win	6–13 December 1969	15	145	6	920	Burma (BIR)
6	1971	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Abdul Halim	6–13 December 1971	15	156	7	957	Thailand (THA)
7	1973	Singapore	President Benjamin Sheares	1–8 September 1973	16	161	7	1632	Thailand (THA)
8	1975	Bangkok, Thailand	King Bhumibol Adulyadej	9–16 December 1975	18	172	4	1142	Thailand (THA)
Southeast Asian Games
9	1977	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Yahya Petra	19–26 November 1977	18	188	7	N/A	Indonesia (INA)
10	1979	Jakarta, Indonesia	President Suharto	21–30 September 1979	18	226	7	N/A	Indonesia (INA)
11	1981	Manila, Philippines	President Ferdinand Marcos	6–15 December 1981	18	245	7	≈1800	Indonesia (INA)
12	1983	Singapore	President Devan Nair	28 May – 6 June 1983	18	233	8	N/A	Indonesia (INA)
13	1985	Bangkok, Thailand	King Bhumibol Adulyadej	8–17 December 1985	18	251	8	N/A	Thailand (THA)
14	1987	Jakarta, Indonesia	President Suharto	9–20 September 1987	26	372	8	N/A	Indonesia (INA)
15	1989	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Azlan Shah	20–31 August 1989	24	302	9	≈2800	Indonesia (INA)
16	1991	Manila, Philippines	President Corazon Aquino	24 November – 3 December 1991	28	327	9	N/A	Indonesia (INA)
17	1993	Singapore	President Wee Kim Wee	12–20 June 1993	29	318	9	≈3000	Indonesia (INA)
18	1995	Chiang Mai, Thailand	Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn	9–17 December 1995	28	335	10	3262	Thailand (THA)
19	1997	Jakarta, Indonesia	President Suharto	11–19 October 1997	36	490	10	5179	Indonesia (INA)
20	1999	Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei	Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah	7–15 August 1999	21	233	10	2365	Thailand (THA)
21	2001	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Salahuddin	8–17 September 2001	32	391	10	4165	Malaysia (MAS)
22	2003	Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam	Prime Minister Phan Văn Khải	5–13 December 2003	32	442	11	≈5000	Vietnam (VIE)
23	2005	Manila, Philippines	President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo	27 November – 5 December 2005	40	443	11	5336	Philippines (PHI)
24	2007	Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand	Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn	6–15 December 2007	43	475	11	5282	Thailand (THA)
25	2009	Vientiane, Laos	President Choummaly Sayasone	9–18 December 2009	29	372	11	3100	Thailand (THA)
26	2011	Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia	President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono	11–22 November 2011	44	545	11	5965	Indonesia (INA)
27	2013	Naypyidaw, Myanmar	Vice President Nyan Tun	11–22 December 2013	37	460	11	4730	Thailand (THA)
28	2015	Singapore	President Tony Tan	5–16 June 2015	36	402	11	4370	Thailand (THA)
29	2017	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Muhammad V	19–30 August 2017	38	404	11	4709	Malaysia (MAS)
30	2019	Philippines[lower-alpha 1]	President Rodrigo Duterte	30 November – 11 December 2019	56	530	11	5630	Philippines (PHI)
31	2021	Hanoi, Vietnam[lower-alpha 2]	President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc	12–23 May 2022	40	526	11	5467	Vietnam (VIE)
32	2023	Phnom Penh, Cambodia	Prime Minister Hun Sen	5–17 May 2023	37	584	11	6210	Vietnam (VIE)
33	2025	Bangkok, Chonburi, and Songkhla, Thailand	King Vajiralongkorn (expected)	9–20 December 2025	Future event
34	2027	Johor Bahru, Malaysia[3]	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Ibrahim Ismail (expected)	TBD 2027	Future event
35	2029	Singapore[4]	Future event
36	2031	Laos[5]	Future event
37	2033	Philippines[5]	Future event
38	2035	Myanmar	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]

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]

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

Rank	NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Thailand (THA)	2453	2127	2204	6784
2	Indonesia (INA)	1980	1876	1970	5826
3	Malaysia (MAS)[1]	1376	1363	1872	4611
4	Vietnam (VIE)[2]	1269	1097	1221	3587
5	Philippines (PHI)	1180	1346	1702	4228
6	Singapore (SGP)	1045	1090	1500	3635
7	Myanmar (MYA)[3]	594	784	1095	2473
8	Cambodia (CAM)[4]	159	202	425	786
9	Laos (LAO)	77	122	412	611
10	Brunei (BRU)	17	57	170	244
11	East Timor (TLS)	5	9	39	53
Totals (11 entries)		10155	10073	12610	32838

• ^[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. In the 1989 edition, a unified Vietnam rejoined the games with a new name and flag. Medals won by South Vietnam until 1975 and by Vietnam after 1989 are combined here.
• ^[3] – Competed as Burma until 1987.
• ^[4] – Competed as Kampuchea, and Khmer Republic.

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.

One unique characteristic of the event is that there are 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, shuttlecock, and wushu, offering 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.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Southeast Asian Games.

• Olympic Council of Asia Regional Hosting List
• SEA Games Federation
• Medal Tally 1959–1995 (archived 11 January 1998)
• Medal Tally (archived 11 October 2008)
• History of the SEA Games (archived 17 December 2004)
• SEA Games previous medal table (archived 4 December 2009)
• SEA Games members (archived 7 December 2001)