ASEAN Para Games

In May 2000, delegates from the countries in Southeast Asia attending the Malaysian Paralympiad in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia had a meeting and agreed to establish a disabled sport organisation. The ASEAN Para Games was conceptualised by Zainal Abu Zarin, the founding president of the Malaysian Paralympic Council.^[1][2][3] The proposed rationale was that a regional sports event will be held after the Southeast Asian Games and help^[4] promoting friendship and solidarity among persons with disabilities in the ASEAN region and rehabilitating and integrating persons with disability into mainstream society.^[5][6]

Ten countries, Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam were the founding members. These countries agreed to hold the Games biennially on 28 April 2001 and ASEAN Para Sports Federation (APSF) was formed on 23 October 2001 with Pisal Wattanawongkiri, president of the Paralympic Committee of Thailand who proposed the games' name, being elected as its first president.

The first ASEAN Para Games was held in Kuala Lumpur from 26 to 29 October 2001 comprising more than 700 athletes and officials from Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam participating in 2 sports.

At the 2nd ASEAN Para Games in Vietnam, East Timor was admitted into the federation as a provisional member.^[7]

The logo of the ASEAN Para Games depicts the ASEAN logo positioned in the center with the symbol of the 1994–2004 Paralympic logo on top and a victory laurel surrounding the ASEAN logo. It is used on all ASEAN Para Games edition logos since 2008. Previously, an unofficial symbol resembled the red colour version of the Southeast Asian Games Federation logo depicting the 11 red rings forming a circle which was used on the logos of the 2003 ASEAN Para Games and 2005 ASEAN Para Games. Furthermore, the 1994–2004 Paralympic logo was used on the logo of the 2001 ASEAN Para Games.^[8]

Seven participating countries have hosted the ASEAN Para Games. Malaysia has hosted three Para Games (2001, 2009, 2017), more than any nation. The 5th ASEAN Para Games in 2009 were to be hosted by Laos, but it begged off from hosting the games due to financial difficulty and inexperience in providing necessary support for athletes with disabilities, therefore the games was brought back to Malaysia for the second time after eight years.

The 10th ASEAN Para Games scheduled to be hosted by the Philippines were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The edition numeral still applied despite the cancellation.^[9]

The 11th ASEAN Para Games scheduled to be hosted by Vietnam was to be cancelled due to postponement for the 2021 Southeast Asian Games caused by COVID-19 pandemic. However Indonesia backed the Games and they were held in Surakarta between 30 July to 6 August.^[10]

Indonesia has hosted ASEAN Para Games twice (2011 and 2022). Vietnam (2003), Philippines (2005), Thailand (2008), Myanmar (2014), Singapore (2015) and Cambodia (2023) have hosted one Para Games. Laos, Brunei and East Timor have yet to host their first ASEAN Para Games.

2001, 2009, 2017

2003

2005

2008, 2026

2023

2011, 2022

2014

2015

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Host cities of ASEAN Para Games

Edition	Year	Host country	Host city	Opened by[a]	Date	Sports	Events	Nations	Competitors	Top-ranked team
1	2001	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	King Mizan Zainal Abidin [b]	26–29 October	2	341	10	≈600	Malaysia (MAS)
2	2003	Vietnam	Hanoi	Prime Minister Phạm Gia Khiêm [c]	21–27 December	5	287	111	≈800	Thailand (THA)
3	2005	Philippines	Manila	Mayor Lito Atienza [d]	14–20 December	10	394	11	≈1000	Thailand (THA)
4	2008	Thailand	Nakhon Ratchasima	Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont [e]	20–26 January	14	488	11	≈1000	Thailand (THA)
5	2009	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur2	Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi [f]	15–19 August	11	409	10	≈1000	Thailand (THA)
6	2011	Indonesia	Surakarta	Vice President Boediono [g]	15–20 December	11	380	11	≈1000	Thailand (THA)
7	2014	Myanmar	Naypyidaw	Vice President Sai Mauk Kham [h]	14–20 January	12	359	10	1482	Indonesia (INA)
8	2015	Singapore	Singapore	President Tony Tan	3–9 December	15	336	10	1181	Thailand (THA)
9	2017	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	Prime Minister Najib Razak [i]	17–23 September	16	369	11	1452	Indonesia (INA)
10	2020	Philippines	Various	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
11	2022	Indonesia	Surakarta3	Vice President Ma'ruf Amin [j]	30 July–6 August	14	455	11	1248	Indonesia (INA)
12	2023	Cambodia	Phnom Penh	Prime Minister Hun Sen [k]	3–9 June	14	439	11	1453	Indonesia (INA)
13	2026	Thailand	Nakhon Ratchasima		20-26 January 2026	Future event
14	2027	Malaysia		Future event
15	2029	Singapore		Future event

• ^1 East Timor was formally included in the Games, increasing its member countries to eleven.
• ^2 Originally planned to be held in Laos.
• ^3 Originally planned to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Nineteen different sports have been part of the ASEAN Para Games in one point or another. Sixteen of which comprised the schedule of the recent 2017 ASEAN Para Games in Kuala Lumpur. The games saw the return of sailing as a full medal sport once again after its debut at the 2009 ASEAN Games in Kuala Lumpur.

• Boccia, ten-pin bowling, sailing and wheelchair fencing were demonstrated at the 2005 ASEAN Para Games.
• Esports were demonstrated at the 2023 ASEAN Para Games.

The table below accounts for the total number of medals awarded to all participating National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) of ASEAN member countries as of the recent 2023 ASEAN Para Games.

Rank	NPC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Thailand	1280	930	717	2927
2	Indonesia	861	710	534	2105
3	Malaysia	741	637	535	1913
4	Vietnam	634	592	588	1814
5	Myanmar	210	167	180	557
6	Philippines	208	248	307	763
7	Singapore	130	118	123	371
8	Brunei	41	44	67	152
9	Cambodia	23	56	79	158
10	East Timor	9	4	18	31
11	Laos	0	21	33	54
Totals (11 entries)		4137	3527	3181	10845

• ASEAN Para Games Website
• 8th ASEAN PARA GAMES 2015 Singapore
• 6th ASEAN PARA GAMES 2011 Solo - Jawa Tengah
• 5th Asean Para Games official launch
• SEAGames website
• 4th ASEAN ParaGames website
• ASEAN Para Sports Federation
• Malaysia started the ASEAN Para Games 16 years ago. But guess who won every single year? :(