ASEAN School Games

ASEAN School Games (ASG) (informally known as the Youth SEA Games) is an annual multi-sport event for secondary schools student athletes in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and organised under the authority of the ASEAN Schools Sports Council (ASSC). The ASSC is an apolitical regional sports council that promotes sports among member countries. Prior to 2009, the games were played based on satellite, single sports events. This was changed in 2009, where a multi-sport event format was implemented. The 1st ASG planned under the new multi-sport format was hosted by Thailand in 2009, while the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ASG were hosted by Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, respectively.^[1][2][3]

The inception of the multi-sport event format was the outcome of a meeting hosted by Thailand in Chiang Mai in 2008. The planning meeting was jointly led by a ministry official from Singapore (Co-Curricular Activities Branch, Mr Timothy D’Cruz) and Thailand (Department of Physical Education, Dr Patanachart Kridiborworn). Singapore was then at the helm of the ASSC Technical Committee. This milestone planning meeting was responsible for setting the foundation of the guiding principles and direction of the approach that resulted in the birth of the first and subsequent ASGs.