2017 SEA Games
The 2017 Southeast Asian Games, officially known as the 29th Southeast Asian Games, or the 29th SEA Games, and commonly known as Kuala Lumpur 2017, were a Southeast Asian multi-sport event that took place from 19 to 30 August 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This was the sixth time that Malaysia hosted the Games and its first time since 2001. Previously, it had also hosted the 1965, 1971, 1977 and 1989 editions of the Games. The 2017 edition is most notable for being the first edition to include winter sports.
The Games were held from 19 to 30 August 2017, although several events had commenced from 14 August 2017. Around 4,646 athletes participated at the event, which featured 404 events in 38 sports. It was opened by the King of Malaysia, Muhammad V at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium.
Hosts Malaysia led the final medal tally, followed by Thailand and Vietnam. Several games and national records were broken during the games.
Host city
As per SEA Games traditions, hosting duties are rotated among the SEA Games Federation member countries. Each country is assigned a year to host but may choose to do so or not.Host selection
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 secretary general Sieh Kok Chi, who attended the meeting, said that Myanmar would host the Games in 2013, followed by Singapore in 2015. It was to be Brunei's turn but it expressed its interest to host the 2019 Games instead of the 2017 edition and thus this resulted in Malaysia being chosen as the host for the 2017 Games.Development and preparation
The Malaysia SEA Games Organising Committee was formed in 2015 to oversee the staging of the event.Costs
Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin in 2013 had hoped the cost of hosting the Games would not exceed MYR80 million. But in 2016, 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.In comparison, Singapore had spent about MYR740 million organising the Games in 2015 while Myanmar was estimated to have spent about MYR1 billion in 2013.
However, the as of March 2021.
Venues
The 2017 Southeast Asian Games was organised across several states in Malaysia. All the existing venues in Bukit Jalil National Sports Complex were upgraded while a new velodrome, costing MYR 80 million was built in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan to host track cycling events and was completed on late March 2017 and opened on 26 May 2017. Initially, Sabah and Sarawak were considered for 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 "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.
A Games village was not built; instead, a "village in the city" concept saw athletes and officials housed in 33 hotels across Peninsular Malaysia. Besides being physically near to the venues, it was hoped that it will add vibe to the nation and reduce post-Games costs in converting a dedicated Games village to other uses.
The 29th Southeast Asian Games had 44 venues for the games, 27 in Kuala Lumpur, 10 in Selangor, 3 in Putrajaya, 2 in Negeri Sembilan and 1 in Terengganu and Kedah, respectively.
Public transport
became one of the 2017 Southeast Asian Games sponsors as “Official Public Transport Service Provider” on 9 May 2017 during the 100-days countdown celebration. The company had expressed commitment to provide 50 Rapid Buses in Klang Valley, fully wrapped with the Games' images and logo, and agreed to extend its service hours during the Games to ease the movement of the public to competition venues. On 11 August 2017, the company announced that it would offer a 50 percent discount on tickets to commuters who utilise its Light Rail Transit, Mass Rail Transit, Bus Rapid Transit and Monorail Line services to competition venues during the Games. Prasarana Malaysia also extended its transportation services hours to 2.00am at selected stations for the comfort of fans and spectators along the Light Rail Transit, Mass Rail Transit and Bus Rapid Transit lines. Several double decker buses were provided to the public who wished to attend the opening ceremony at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.Volunteers
The organisers estimated that about 20,000 volunteers are needed to successfully host the SEA Games and the ASEAN Para Games. They were tasked with a variety of duties, such as scorekeeping, crowd control, ticketing, promotions. Volunteer recruitment began on 14 November 2015, the same date as the launch party of the games logo, theme and mascot until July 2017, in which 50,000 people have signed up as volunteers. The Games Volunteer Program was held at the National University of Malaysia in Bangi in four phases from February to June. On 19 July 2017, of the 50,000 online applicants, 13,000 people were selected to be the games volunteer. 9,000 people were chosen to be the volunteer of the 2017 Southeast Asian Games, whereas another 4,000 people were chosen to be the volunteer of the 2017 ASEAN Para Games.Ticketing
Online tickets were put on sale from 4 July 2017. To encourage public participation at the Games, it was announced on 4 July 2017 that 24 of the sports, aquatics' open swimming event and cycling events will be free for spectators, while the other 12, such as aquatics and cycling are kept at relatively affordable levels of between RM10 and RM20.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. From 2 March to 20 May 2017 Malaysia SEA Games organising committee organised a school tour programme dubbed the KL2017@Schools programme at 33 selected schools across Peninsular Malaysia to instill awareness about the games amongst the school students.
On 9 May 2017, Malaysia SEA Games Organising committee organised a major countdown event at KL Sentral to mark the 100-day countdown in a few days which was attended by athletes, officials, para-athletes, stakeholders, sponsors and volunteers. After that, various individuals and organisations marked the games countdown through a video tribute. This included: Kyopropaganda and Malaysia SEA Games Organising Committee, Ipan Bender, Intan Sarah and National Women Futsal teammates, Aminemo and the Royal Malaysian Police Personnel, Superpandy, Farhan Kapoor and the scouts, Joseph Germani and Malaysia Basketball Association trainees, Olivia Shyan and the SK Taman Megah students, Ahmad Aiman and 30 locals, Muhammad Rezza, Akwa Ariffin and 20 tai chi practitioners, Joseph Germani and the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia personnel, Farhan Hadi, Preston Les and Tanesh, Ain Suhada and Iqbal Harun and Miss Alvy, Yasmin Matthews, Khor Adrian and Raj Mahal. A run competition dubbed the 2017 SEA Games Run was held in Putrajaya the same day as the Games' marathon event and opening ceremony.