Nations participating 11 Events 460 in 37 sports Closing ceremony 22 December 2013 | Athletes participating 4730 Opening ceremony 11 December 2013 | |
 | ||
Motto Green, Clean and Friendship | ||
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.
Contents
- Host city
- Development and preparation
- Venues
- Public Transport
- Logo and mascot
- Songs
- Sponsors
- Opening ceremony
- Closing ceremony
- Participating nations
- Sports
- Medal table
- Broadcasting
- Concerns and controversies
- References
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.
Host city
Myanmar, Vietnam, Philippines and Thailand have revealed their intentions to host the Games. However, since the latter three nations hosted the 2003, 2005 and 2007 editions, respectively, these countries are ineligible to host this edition.
Myanmar held the largest time interval of hosting the games, spanning a time of 44 years. The Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF) Council met in Jakarta on 31 May 2010 unanimously agreed to award the Myanmar Olympic Committee the right to host the 27th edition of the games. Official website of the Olympic Council of Asia also approved the fact that Myanmar would host the 27th Southeast Asian Games in its news launched on 7 June 2010. ASEAN Football Federation (AFF)'s official website also announced that Myanmar would host the games.
Development and preparation
The Myanmar SEA Games Organising Committee (MYASOC) led by U Tint Hsan was formed to oversee the staging of the event.
Venues
Wunna Theikdi Sports Complex
Zayarthiri Sports Complex
Other venues
Public Transport
As Naypyidaw is yet to be fully developed into a city, only shuttle bus services were provided throughout the games and were used to ferry athletes and officials to and from the airport, games venues and games village. The co-host cities of the games, Yangon, Mandalay and Ngwesaung also provided the same services during the games.
Logo and mascot
The logo of the 2013 Southeast Asian Games is the map of Myanmar. The ball with eleven rings resembling the 11 Southeast Asian countries and the Southeast Asian Games Federation represents the successful holding of Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar and yellow, green and red are the three national colours represented in Myanmar's National Flag. The yellow circle represents equality and fraternity, green color represents love of nature and the green economy and red color represents courage and hard working nature of Myanmar. The circular shape represents complete perfection and endless prosperity among the Southeast Asian countries.
The official mascot of the 2013 Southeast Asian Games is a couple of owls named Shwe Yoe and Ma Moe. The owls are considered lucky charms in Myanmar tradition. Owl is globally taken as the wisest, calmest and balanced animal. But, in Myanmar it is also taken to be auspicious and believed to bring forth luck and prosperity to the family, for which the owl dolls are kept at their homes as lucky charms. The owl as official mascot of Myanmar SEA Games 2013 has a personality: wise, calm, lucky, loyal, and friendly. The personality of an owl is expected to bring forth co-operation, friendship, and better understanding among the participating countries.
Songs
There were several songs composed for the 2013 Southeast Asian Games, which includes the theme song of the games, "Colourful Garden" and many other campaign songs for the games.
Sponsors
A total of 18 sponsors, comprising 14 official sponsors and 4 official supporters sponsored the 2013 Southeast Asian Games.
Opening ceremony
The opening ceremony was held on 11 December 2013 at the Wunna Theikdi Stadium. It marked the nation's biggest sporting event hosted since 1969. It was led with pre-launch entertainment and a series of screens beamed a dramatic lights show during the Chinese-backed extravaganza.
Fireworks displays was made upon the entrance of President Thein Sein into the stadium. The theme song "Colourful Garden" was performed during the flag-raising ceremony after performances made by 12,000 school children and the Myanmar Royal Auspicious Orchestra. Chairman of the 27th SEA Games Organising Committee, Vice-President Nyan Tun declared the Games open with another explosion of colourful fireworks that lit up the night. Torch relay was passed through the hands of six former Myanmar athletes before Aye Myint Kyu, the Union Minister for Culture, handed it to a Burmese archer where he lit up the Games cauldron by shooting an arrow into it.
A showcase of arts and culture about history of Burma was made, with dance performances accompanied the ending of the ceremony.
Closing ceremony
The Games had its closing ceremony held at Wunna Theikdi Stadium on 22 December 2013. It was started with an hour of music following the performance of "Colorful Garden", the theme song for the Games and subsequently, "Loyalty of Blood" was later presented by well-known artists May Sweet and May Kha Lar. The musical hors d'oeuvres concluded with all artists joining together in "Be Peaceful". President Thein Sein and his wife Khin Khin Win then entered the stadium, following which the Closing Ceremony was officially opened with a pyrotechnic display.
Four performances were presented with the first directly connected the SEA Games to Myanmar tradition, celebrating the sport of chinlone, which is believed to have first appeared in Myanmar in the 5th century. It then followed with the "Elephant Dance" which about paying tribute to the elephants in Myanmar.
The Closing Ceremony then paid homage to the 135 officially recognised ethnic races diversity of the country with the performance of "Everlasting Myanmar", depicting the rich diversity of the population, and simultaneously the many obstacles on the path to realising a new, peaceful and prosperous modern state.
Medal winners of every participating countries were then paraded onto the stadium floor to the beat of martial music – chants of "Myanmar" ringing through the stadium.
With the procession complete, Vice-President Nyan Tun officially announced the 27th SEA Games concluded, as strobe lights searched the sky and a cornucopia of fireworks exploded over the stadium.
The first SEA Games in Myanmar in 44 years was then finally put to rest with one last volley of fireworks and round of musical performances following the official handing over of SEA Games responsibilities to Singapore, host of the 2015 Southeast Asian Games.
Participating nations
Host nation
Sports
Myanmar hosted 37 sports, less than the number of sport in 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia. Organisers did not nominate the sports of beach volleyball and dancesports, because they considered those uniforms unsuitable for Burmese women. Tennis and Gymnastics, are Olympic sports were not played in December. In this edition of the Games, floorball was also contested as a demonstration sport. The following sports below were calendared for the 2013 Southeast Asian Games.
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.
° – 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.
Medal table
A total of 1531 medals comprising 461 gold medals, 459 silver medals and 611 bronze medals were awarded to athletes. The host Myanmar performance was the best ever yet in Southeast Asian Games history, and were only second to Thailand as overall champion. Athletics awarded 46 gold medals with maximum ones in that year's SEA Games.
* Host nation (Myanmar)
2 gold medalists from Myanmar, namely Saw Mar Lar Nwe and Min Zaw Oo, both from athletics and bodybuilding respectively and an Indonesian swimmer, Indra Gunawan were tested positive for a banned drug, thus were stripped off their gold and silver medals.
Broadcasting
Host nation