Southeast Asian Games

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.

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.

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.

1959, 1967, 1975, 1985, 2025

1961, 1969

1965, 1971, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2017

1973, 1983, 1993, 2015

1979, 1987, 1997, 2011

1981, 1991, 2005

1995

1999

2003, 2021

2007

2009

2011

2013

2019

2023

Location of the Southeast Asian Games host

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	Thailand (THA)
2	1961	Yangon, Burma	President Win Maung	11–16 December	13	N/A	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	14	N/A	6	963	Thailand (THA)
4	1967	Bangkok, Thailand	King Bhumibol Adulyadej	9–16 December	16	N/A	6	984	Thailand (THA)
5	1969	Yangon, Burma	Prime Minister Ne Win	6–13 December	15	N/A	6	920	Burma (BIR)
6	1971	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Abdul Halim	6–13 December	15	N/A	7	957	Thailand (THA)
7	1973	Singapore	President Benjamin Sheares	1–8 September	16	N/A	7	1632	Thailand (THA)
8	1975	Bangkok, Thailand	King Bhumibol Adulyadej	9–16 December	18	N/A	4	1142	Thailand (THA)
Southeast Asian Games
9	1977	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Yahya Petra	19–26 November	18	N/A	7	N/A	Indonesia (INA)
10	1979	Jakarta, Indonesia	President Suharto	21–30 September	18	N/A	7	N/A	Indonesia (INA)
11	1981	Manila, Philippines	President Ferdinand Marcos	6–15 December	18	N/A	7	≈1800	Indonesia (INA)
12	1983	Singapore	President Devan Nair	28 May – 6 June	18	N/A	8	N/A	Indonesia (INA)
13	1985	Bangkok, Thailand	King Bhumibol Adulyadej	8–17 December	18	N/A	8	N/A	Thailand (THA)
14	1987	Jakarta, Indonesia	President Suharto	9–20 September	26	N/A	8	N/A	Indonesia (INA)
15	1989	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Azlan Shah	20–31 August	24	N/A	9	≈2800	Indonesia (INA)
16	1991	Manila, Philippines	President Corazon Aquino	24 November – 3 December	28	N/A	9	N/A	Indonesia (INA)
17	1993	Singapore	President Wee Kim Wee	12–20 June	29	N/A	9	≈3000	Indonesia (INA)
18	1995	Chiang Mai, Thailand	Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn	9–17 December	28	N/A	10	3262	Thailand (THA)
19	1997	Jakarta, Indonesia	President Suharto	11–19 October	36	490	10	5179	Indonesia (INA)
20	1999	Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei	Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah	7–15 August	21	233	10	2365	Thailand (THA)
21	2001	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Salahuddin	8–17 September	32	391	10	4165	Malaysia (MAS)
22	2003	Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam	Prime Minister Phan Văn Khải	5–13 December	32	442	11	≈5000	Vietnam (VIE)
23	2005	Manila, Philippines	President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo	27 November – 5 December	40	443	11	5336	Philippines (PHI)
24	2007	Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand	Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn	6–15 December	43	475	11	5282	Thailand (THA)
25	2009	Vientiane, Laos	President Choummaly Sayasone	9–18 December	29	372	11	3100	Thailand (THA)
26	2011	Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia	President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono	11–22 November	44	545	11	5965	Indonesia (INA)
27	2013	Naypyidaw, Myanmar	Vice President Nyan Tun	11–22 December	37	460	11	4730	Thailand (THA)
28	2015	Singapore	President Tony Tan	5–16 June	36	402	11	4370	Thailand (THA)
29	2017	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong Muhammad V	19–30 August	38	404	11	4709	Malaysia (MAS)
30	2019	Philippines[3]	President Rodrigo Duterte	30 November – 11 December	56	530	11	5630	Philippines (PHI)
31	2021	Hanoi, Vietnam	Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính (expected)	12–23 May 2022	40	526	11	7037	TBD
32	2023	Phnom Penh, Cambodia	King Norodom Sihamoni (expected)	5—16 May	Future event
33	2025	Bangkok, Thailand[4]	King Vajiralongkorn (expected)	TBD	Future event
34	2027	Indonesia	TBD	10–21 December	Future event
35	2029	Laos[5]	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^[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	Singapore (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	Laos (LAO)	69	93	319	481
10	Brunei (BRU)	14	55	163	232
11	Timor-Leste (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.

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.

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.

• 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