Thailand will host the 2025 edition of the SEA Games, which will run from December 9 to 20, 2025. This makes Thailand the record holder for hosting the biennial event. After Thailand, Malaysia has hosted the showpiece competition six times, and Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines have hosted it four times each. Timor-Leste is the only nation that has never hosted the SEA Games, as it only joined the competition for the first time in 2003.
The Games are to be played across the Bangkok Metropolitan Region, as well as the provinces of Chonburi and Songkhla, and Thailand. The joint bid from the three provinces was awarded on January 13, 2023.
Recapping the last SEA Games
The 2023 SEA Games marked the first time the event returned to its two-year cycle, as the 2021 edition was delayed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2023 edition of the biennial competition was held across five cities in Cambodia, namely Siem Reap, Kep, Kampot, Phnom Penh, and Sihanoukville. The 2023 edition featured 39 sports on its programme.
Vietnam won the most medals with 136 golds, 105 silvers, and 114 bronzes. Thailand came second with 108 golds, 96 silvers, and 108 bronzes, and Indonesia came third with 87 golds, 80 silvers, and 109 bronzes.
Bou Samnang, Jonathan Tan, and Carlos Yulo had some of the best moments in the previous Games. Samnang tugged the hearts of Cambodian fans after she refused to stop running despite a torrential downpour toward the end of her 5km race, while all of her counterparts had already finished. Tan dominated the proceedings in swimming to secure his spot for Paris 2024 by winning 47 medals (22 golds, 16 silvers, and nine bronzes) across the six-day competition. Yulo, before winning two Olympic golds in Paris last year, won a handful of medals in artistic gymnastics.
How many sports are to be played in the 2025 SEA Games?
Several major stadiums in Thailand had a huge makeover, as the country is set to host the 33rd edition of the SEA Games in December. The Rajamangala National Stadium was one of the first to get a big upgrade, as it will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the SEA Games. The 80th Birthday Stadium in Nakhon Ratchasima was also improved, as it is the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the ASEAN Para Games in January 2026.
The upcoming 2025 SEA Games will feature 50 sports, along with four demonstration events, for a total of 574 gold medals up for grabs. We’ll have artistic swimming, diving, open water swimming, and water polo for the aquatics, compound and recurve archery, the usual events in the athletics, badminton, baseball, softball, 5v5 basketball, 3×3 basketball, billiards, snooker, six-red snooker, bowling, boxing, canoeing, rowing, dragon boat, chess, cricket, BMX, mountain biking, road, and track for cycling, dressage, eventing, show jumping, and polo for equestrian, polo, Esports, jet skiing, skateboarding, sport climbing, water skiing and wakeboarding, fencing (Epee, Foil, and Sabre), floorball, football, futsal, golf, gymnastics (artistic, rhythmic, and aerobic), handball, hockey (field, hockey5s, and indoor), ice hockey, ice skating (figure skating, short-track speed), various combat sports, kabaddi, modern pentathlon, petanque, rugby sevens, sailing (sailing, kiteboarding, and windsurfing), sepak takraw, shooting, squash, table tennis, tennis, teqball, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, and woodball.
The demonstration events include: air sports (paragliding and paramotoring), flying disc (ultimate and disc golf), tug of war, and mixed martial arts (MMA).
SEA Games planning to clear up basketball eligibility issues
One of the biggest controversies in the previous SEA Games was the player eligibility issue in 5v5 basketball. Because the tournament didn’t follow FIBA eligibility rules, this meant that every nation could deploy as many naturalized players or dual citizens as they wanted, even if most of them didn’t get their passports by the age of 16.
Hosts Cambodia abused this by fielding a stacked lineup full of players of American descent. With a stronger roster, Cambodia took the top spot in Group A with a 3-0 record, while the Philippines, typically the favoured side in SEA Games basketball, was right behind them with a 2-1 record.
Cambodia won 76-66 over Thailand in the semi-finals but lost 80-69 to the Philippines in the gold medal match. Gilas Pilipinas leaned on their chemistry, and Justin Brownlee led all scorers with 23 points.
According to the latest SEA Games 2025 news, the organisers will follow the FIBA’s eligibility norms. This means that the Philippines is favoured to win the gold medal anew, per the SBOTOP SEA Games 2025 odds.
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