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 (SEAGF) 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 (OCM) 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 (MASOC) 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 (US$18 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 (SG$264 million, using the then SGD/MYR exchange rate of 2.80, as opposed to the current rate of 3.15) organising the Games in 2015 while Myanmar was estimated to have spent about MYR1 billion in 2013.
However, the accounts have not been made public 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.
Kuala LumpurNational Sports Complex, MalaysiaNational Aquatic Centre Aquatics (Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water polo)Synthetic Turf Field ArcheryBukit Jalil National Stadium Athletics, opening and closing ceremoniesAxiata Arena BadmintonMalaysia National Hockey Stadium Field HockeyBukit Kiara Sports ComplexNational Lawn Bowls Centre Lawn BowlsJuara StadiumNetball, Pencak silatKuala Lumpur Convention CentreHall 4Billiards and snookerHall 5Judo, WushuHall 1Karate, TaekwondoHall 2Pencak silatMalaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC)Hall 8 Boxing, MuaythaiHall 6FencingHall 9 and 10GymnasticsHall 4Indoor HockeyHall 3WeightliftingHall 7 Table TennisHall 11 VolleyballOthersMalaysia Basketball Association (MABA) Stadium BasketballNational Squash CentreSquashKuala Lumpur Football Stadium FootballUniversity of Malaya FootballRaintree Club SquashPudu Ulu Recreational Park, Kuala Lumpur PetanqueNational Tennis Centre, Jalan Duta TennisTitiwangsa Indoor Stadium Sepak takrawEmpire City Ice Arena Ice Hockey, Ice SkatingSelangorUniversiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam FootballShah Alam Stadium FootballMP Selayang StadiumFootballKinrara Oval, Puchong Cricket3Q Equestrian Park RawangEquestrian (Dressage, Show Jumping)The MINES Resort City Golf Club GolfMBPJ Stadium Rugby SevensNational Shooting RangeShootingMegalanes, Sunway Pyramid BowlingPanasonic Stadium Shah Alam FutsalPutrajayaPutrajaya Lake Triathlon, Water Skiing, Aquatics (Open water swimming)PutrajayaCycling Road, Athletics (Marathon)Putrajaya Equestrian Park Equestrian (Polo)Negeri SembilanVelodrom Nasional MalaysiaTrack Cycling, BMXNilai SquareRoad CyclingTerengganuTerengganu International Equestrian Park Equestrian (Endurance)KedahNational Sailing Centre, Langkawi Sailing
Public transport Rapid KL 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 (BMX and road) events will be free for spectators, while the other 12, such as aquatics (diving, swimming, synchronised and water polo events) and cycling (track events) 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 (100, 100-people mass exercise), Ipan Bender (90, 90 High Fives), Intan Sarah and National Women Futsal teammates (80, Ball-juggling 80 times), Aminemo and the Royal Malaysian Police Personnel (70, 70 times push-ups in 7 different ways), Superpandy, Farhan Kapoor and the scouts (60, Building a tower of bottles in 60 seconds using 100 Plus bottles), Joseph Germani and Malaysia Basketball Association trainees (50, score 50 basketball shots), Olivia Shyan and the SK Taman Megah students (40, plant 40 plants), Ahmad Aiman and 30 locals (30, 30-people tarik relay), Muhammad Rezza, Akwa Ariffin and 20 tai chi practitioners (20, doing tai chi with 20 practitioners), Joseph Germani and the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia personnel (10, doing 10 times burpees), Farhan Hadi, Preston Les and Tanesh (3, doing three-legged race), Ain Suhada and Iqbal Harun (2, Exercise with a Partner) and Miss Alvy, Yasmin Matthews, Khor Adrian and Raj Mahal (1, paint a number 1 sculpture bearing the stripes of the games logo with a group of people). A run competition dubbed the 2017 SEA Games Run was held in Putrajaya the same day as the Games' marathon event (at the same venue) and opening ceremony.
Security
The principal agency to ensure the security of the Games was the Royal Malaysia Police. Six drills were held to prepare the police force to face any unforeseen situations.
Medals
The medals of the Games were designed by Royal Selangor, which is also the designer company for the torch and the baton. They were announced on 30 May 2017, the same day Royal Selangor announced as one of the Games' main sponsors which made MASOC's sponsorship total RM82.6 million, exceeded its sponsorship target of RM80 million. The medals have subtle curved surfaces, rims and edges, and are made of pewter with a disc of kempas wood integrated into the design. They featured the Southeast Asian Games Federation logo on the obverse (In the case of ASEAN Para Games, it is the ASEAN Para Sports Federation logo), and the games logo on the reverse.
Baton relay