Nations participating 11 Opening ceremony 19 August 2017 | Motto Rising Together Events 405 in 38 sports Closing ceremony 31 August 2017 | |
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The 2017 Southeast Asian Games (Malay: Sukan Asia Tenggara 2017), officially known as the 29th Southeast Asian Games (Malay: Sukan Asia Tenggara ke-29) and commonly known as Kuala Lumpur 2017 is a regional multi-sport event that will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 19 to 31 August 2017, with 405 events in 38 sports to be featured in the games. It will be the sixth time that the Southeast Asian Games held in Malaysia, after 1965, 1971, 1977, 1989 and 2001 Games and its first since 2001. By the time the country hosts the games in 2017, it will be 16 years after Malaysia last hosted the biennial event. The Games closing ceremony will coincide with Malaysia’s 60th Independence Day.
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Host city
As per SEA Games traditions, hosting duties are rotated among the SEA Games Federation (SEAGF) member countries. Each country is assigned a year to host but may choose to do so or not.
In July 2012, the SEAGF meeting in Myanmar confirmed that Malaysia would host the regional biennial event in 2017, should there be no other country willing to bid for the host job. Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary general Sieh Kok Chi, who attended the meeting, said that Myanmar would host the Games in 2013, followed by Singapore in 2015. Then it should be Brunei's turn but it wanted to host the 2019 Games instead of the 2017 edition. Malaysia is willing to be the host for the 2017 Games.
Development and preparation
The Malaysia SEA Games Organising Committee (MASOC) was formed in 2015 to oversee the staging of the event.
Venues
The 2017 Southeast Asian Games will be organised across several states in Malaysia. All the existing venues in Bukit Jalil National Sports Complex will be upgraded while a new velodrome will be built in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan to host track cycling events. Initially, Sabah and Sarawak was considered a number of events contested. However, the Chief Executive Officer of 2017 SEA Games, Zolkples Embong has decided not to involve the East Malaysian states, citing "a higher cost" as the main reason for not involving.
More than RM1.6 billion has been allocated by the host country to turn the National Sports Complex in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, and its surrounding areas into a Sports City. The first phase of the work will get the Bukit Jalil National Stadium ready to host the 2017 Southeast Asia Games.
Volunteers
The organisers estimated that about 20,000 volunteers are needed to successfully host the SEA games and the ASEAN Para Games. Volunteer recruitment began on 14 November 2015, the same date as the launch party of the games logo, theme and mascot. In less than 48 hours, more than 20,000 have signed up as volunteers who will be shortlisted for a variety of duties, ranging from scorekeeping, crowd control, ticketing, promotions and many more. The first phase of the Games Volunteer Program was held at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in Bangi.
Countdown
During the closing ceremony of the 2015 Southeast Asian Games, the SEAGF Flag was formally handed over to Malaysia from Singapore. This was followed by a song and dance section highlighting Malaysia as the next venue. On 14 November 2015, a launch party was held at the Suria KLCC to launch the logo, mascot and the volunteer recruitment programme.
On 19 August 2016, a series of festivities, dubbed the "Wau Factor" were held at the National Sports Council Centre in Setiawangsa, to mark the one-year countdown to the games.
Cost
Sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin in 2013 had hoped the cost of hosting the games would not exceed MYR80 million (USD18 million). But in 2016, The minister the government budgeted the cost to not exceed MYR500 million while during the 2017 budget, the prime minister, who was also the finance minister, announced a RM450 million budget for hosting the games.
Singapore in 2015 had spent about MYR740 million (SGD264 million) organizing the games while Myanmar was estimated to have spent about MYR1 billion in 2013.
Logo and mascot
The logo of the 2017 Southeast Asian Games is an image of a Wau Bulan, a crescent-shaped kite traditionally popular on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The combination of stripes and colours were collated from the flags of all the Southeast Asian countries to create the Kuala Lumpur 2017 identity. It was selected after a nationwide logo competition which saw 174 entries submitted for consideration. The Wau is described as graceful, beautiful, powerful, rising high above and something that could uniquely represent the transcendent power of sports.
The official mascot of the 2017 Southeast Asian Games is an anthropomorphic Malayan tiger named Rimau. It was unveiled on 14 November 2015, together with the games' logo and theme. The name is an abbreviation of the games' core values, namely: Respect, Integrity, Move, Attitude and Unity. He is described as a gracious, friendly, competitive and athletic athlete.
Participating nations
All 11 members of Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF) are expected to take part in the 2017 SEA Games. Below is a list of all the participating NOCs.
Sports
A total of 38 sports will be contested in this edition. Five sports including two winter sports will be introduced to the Games – bridge, cricket, ice hockey, ice skating and Tarung Derajat. For the first time, two winter sports were accepted by the South East Asian Games Federation (SEAGF) Council into the SEA Games. Ice skating and ice hockey, together with cricket, were inducted into Category Two joining the other 35 sports which are featured in the Olympic Games and Asian Games. Tarung Derajat and Bridge join 16 other sports in Category Three.
On 16 June 2015, Chief Executive Officer for the 2017 SEA Games, Zolkples Embong said the staging of Olympic sports hopes will be part of the legacy of the SEA Games in Malaysia. He said that while it has always been the norm for host nations to select sports they are geared towards in an attempt to increase their haul of gold medals, the practice is not in line with the goals, which is to groom athletes from the region to compete at the Asian and Olympic Games. He gives an example of 2011 Southeast Asian Games hosted by Indonesia which included many non-Olympic sports and the host played to their advantage by being the overall winners with 182 gold medals. However, Indonesia only won 47 gold medals in 2015 Southeast Asian Games. He added, in terms of the number and type of sports, Malaysia may not include non-Olympic sports like floorball and sailing’s optimist race in 2017.
As of February 2016, the sports of Archery, BMX cycling, Wrestling, Triathlon, Judo, Muaythai, Canoeing, Bodybuilding and Fencing were removed from the preliminary shortlist of the sporting disciplines that will play in the 2017 SEA Games. Also removed from the list are the women's events in boxing, billiards and snooker, sanda, and weightlifting and 8 events in Athletics. National Olympic Committees from the 11 participating countries will have until March 9 to appeal to reinclude the delisted sports in the shortlist.
On 12 May 2016, a meeting between Olympic Council of Malaysia and Paralympic Council of Malaysia, chaired by sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin was held to propose the merger of the 2017 Southeast Asian Games and the 2017 ASEAN Para Games into a single games which if approved will integrate the para sports into the games' main programme. The same topic was also discussed at the Asean Para Sports Federation Board of Governors meeting on 7 June 2016. By 14 July, the proposal has been rejected by SEA Games Federation (SEAGF) Council, with 9 member countries have opposed the proposal while only two (Malaysia and Laos) agreed, citing the reason for the rejection was due to the tradition and culture that has long been maintained by SEAGF.
38 sports with 405 events in all for the Games were included in the final list approved by the SEAGF on 14 July 2016.