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

Formation

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.

There was a certain logic to the idea. The countries of the region had many similarities. Modest of population and on a comparable economic footing, they shared common sports participation as well as roughly equal standards of achievement. Such an event would serve as a stepping stone for Southeast Asian athletes to raise their standards so as to be more competitive when they met more advantaged athletes in the larger arenas of the Asian Games and Olympic Games.

2015 Southeast Asian Games

The 2015 Southeast Asian Games, officially known as the 28th Southeast Asian Games (or simply 28th SEA Games), was a Southeast Asian multi-sport event hosted by the city-state of Singapore. It was the fourth time the country had hosted the games and the first time since 1993. The games was held from 5 to 16 June 2015, although several events had commenced from 29 May 2015. About 4370 athletes from 11 participated nations competed in the Games, with 402 events in 36 sports featured in the Games.

Singapore was awarded rights to host the Southeast Asian Games in 2011 after several delays from 2007, due to construction of the New National Stadium and is the fourth nation to host the Southeast Asian Games after Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia and before Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam and Laos.

The final medal tally was led by Thailand, followed by host Singapore and Vietnam. Several Asian, Games and National records were broken during the games. Though there were several controversies, the Games were deemed generally successful with its effective management of cost spent to host the games, arrangement of public transport and games promotion and with the rising standard of competition amongst the Southeast Asian nations by the reduction of non-Olympic sports.

2013 Southeast Asian Games

The 2013 Southeast Asian Games (Burmese: 2013 ခုနှစ်အရှေ့တောင်အာရှအားကစားပြိုင်ပွဲ) (2013 hkunhait aashaetaungaarsh aarrkahcarrpyainepwal) officially known as the 27th Southeast Asian Games, was a multi-sport event took place in Naypyidaw, the new capital of Myanmar, as well as in other main cities, Yangon, Mandalay and Ngwesaung Beach with 460 events in 37 sports and disciplines featured in the games.

Myanmar had already hosted the Games in 1961 and 1969 respectively in Yangon, the then capital of Myanmar. For the third time, Myanmar hosted the Southeast Asian Games. Singapore withdrew its hosting rights due to expected delays in the completion of its new national stadium. Naypyidaw is the second Myanma city to host the Southeast Asian Games after Yangon. Myanmar is the second nation to host the Southeast Asian Games after Thailand.

The final medal tally was led by Thailand, followed by host Myanmar and Vietnam. Several Asian, Games and National records were broken during the games. Though there were several controversies, the Games were deemed generally successful with Myanmar games hosting experience after 44 years and with the rising standard of competition amongst the Southeast Asian nations.