ASEAN Para Games

The ASEAN Para Games is a biennial multi-sport event held after every Southeast Asian Games involving disabled athletes from the current 11 Southeast Asia countries. Participating athletes have a variety of disabilities ranging from spastic, cerebral palsy, mobility disabilities, visual disabilities, amputated to intellectual disabilities. The ASEAN Para Games is under the regulation of the ASEAN Para Sports Federation (APSF) with supervision by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the Asian Paralympic Committee and is traditionally hosted by the country where the Southeast Asian Games took place.

ASEAN Para Games

ASEAN Para Games first Logo
First event	2001 ASEAN Para Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Occur every	2 years
Next event	2026 ASEAN Para Games in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
Purpose	Multi sport event for disabled people of the nations on the Southeast Asian sub-continent
Headquarters	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
President	Osoth Bhavilai
Website	www.aseanparasportsfed.org

History

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]

Logo

ASEAN Para Games unofficial symbol (2003–2005)

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]

Participating countries

Nation	Code	National Paralympic Committee	Debuted
Brunei	BRU	Paralympic Council of Brunei Darussalam	2001
Cambodia	CAM	National Paralympic Committee of Cambodia	2001
Indonesia	INA	National Paralympic Committee of Indonesia	2001
Laos	LAO	Lao Paralympic Committee	2001
Malaysia	MAS	Paralympic Council of Malaysia	2001
Myanmar	MYA	Myanmar Paralympic Sports Federation	2001
Philippines	PHI	Paralympic Committee of the Philippines	2001
Singapore	SGP	Singapore National Paralympic Council	2001
Thailand	THA	Paralympic Committee of Thailand	2001
East Timor	TLS	National Paralympic Committee of Timor-Leste	2003
Vietnam	VIE	Vietnam Paralympic Association	2001

List of ASEAN Para Games

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 were 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 were originally scheduled to be hosted by Vietnam, but were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, unlike the 2021 Southeast Asian Games, which were postponed to 2022. However, Indonesia would step up to host the Games, and they were held in Surakarta between 30 July to 6 August 2022.^[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. Brunei, East Timor and Laos have yet to host the ASEAN Para Games.

2001, 2009, 2017

2003

2005

2008, 2026

2023

2011, 2022

2014

2015

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	≈1,000	Thailand (THA)
4	2008	Thailand	Nakhon Ratchasima	Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont[e]	20–26 January	14	488	11	≈1,000	Thailand (THA)
5	2009	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur2	Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi[f]	15–19 August	11	409	10	≈1,000	Thailand (THA)
6	2011	Indonesia	Surakarta	Vice President Boediono[g]	15–20 December	11	380	11	≈1,000	Thailand (THA)
7	2014	Myanmar	Naypyidaw	Vice President Sai Mauk Kham[h]	14–20 January	12	359	10	1,482	Indonesia (INA)
8	2015	Singapore		President Tony Tan	3–9 December	15	336	10	1,181	Thailand (THA)
9	2017	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	Prime Minister Najib Razak[i]	17–23 September	16	369	11	1,452	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	1,248	Indonesia (INA)
12	2023	Cambodia	Phnom Penh	Prime Minister Hun Sen[k]	3–9 June	14	439	11	1,453	Indonesia (INA)
13	2026	Thailand	Nakhon Ratchasima		20-26 January	19	536	11	Future event
14	2027	Malaysia		Future event
15	2029	Singapore		Future event

1. Names & offices in italics reflect an opener who was not head of state when opening the Games. If the office is partially italicized, the non-italicized portion is the office & name of the head of state being represented.
2. Representing Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, King of Malaysia.
3. Representing Trần Đức Lương, President of Vietnam.
4. Representing Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, President of Philippines.
5. Representing Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand.
6. Representing Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, King of Malaysia.
7. Representing Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia.
8. Representing Thein Sein, President of Myanmar.
9. Representing Sultan Muhammad V, King of Malaysia.
10. Representing Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia.
11. Representing Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia.

• ^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.

List of sports

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.

Core sports Athletics (since 2001) Powerlifting (since 2003) Judo (2005-2008, since 2022) Chess (since 2005) Target sports Archery (2008-2017, 2022, 2025) Cycling (2017, 2025) Target shooting (2008, 2015, 2025) Wheelchair fencing (2008, 2025) Water sports Sailing (2009, 2015) Swimming (since 2001)

Ball and Racquet sports Badminton (2003-2011, since 2015) Boccia (2008-2014, since 2015) Ten-pin bowling (2009-2011, 2015-2017) Five-a-side football (2014-2017, 2023) CP football (since 2014) Goalball (since 2005) Table tennis (since 2003) Wheelchair basketball (2005-2009, since 2015) Wheelchair tennis (2005-2017, 2022, 2025) Sitting volleyball (2009-2014 since 2017) Other sports Esports (2025)

• 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.

All-time medal table

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	1,280	930	717	2,927
2	Indonesia	861	710	534	2,105
3	Malaysia	741	637	535	1,913
4	Vietnam	634	592	588	1,814
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	Timor-Leste	9	4	18	31
11	Laos	0	21	33	54
Totals (11 entries)		4,137	3,527	3,181	10,845

See also

Events of the OCA (Continental) Asian Games Asian Winter Games Asian Youth Games Asian Beach Games Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games Events of the OCA (Regional) East Asian Games Central Asian Games South Asian Games West Asian Games Southeast Asian Games

Events of the APC (Continental) Asian Para Games Asian Youth Para Games Events of the APC (Regional) ASEAN Para Games