The SEA Games Federation and the Organising Board of the host country Thailand have just announced a list of competition sports at the 33^rd SEA Games scheduled to take place in December 2025. Included in the list are many of Da Nang's strength sports, helping increase the competitiveness ability for medals of the city's sports in particular and Viet Nam’s in general in the regional arena.

Tran Le Tan Dat (left) has a chance to defend his gold medal in karate at the 33rd SEA Games. Photo courtesy of the character

44 sports included

The 33^rd SEA Games in 2025 will feature 44 sports of 567 events, including aquatic sports, athletics, archery, badminton, basketball, rowing, canoeing, cycling, fencing, football, futsal, golf, gymnastics, judo, shooting, hockey, sailing, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, weightlifting, boxing, volleyball, wrestling, pentathlon, weightlifting, billiards & snooker, e-sports, Muay, netball, pencak silat, petanque, sepak takraw, squash, bowling, karate, ju-jitsu, cricket, wushu, kabaddi, teqball, kickboxing, chess, and wooden ball. Demonstration sports include discus throw, tug of war, and aviation sports.

The representative of Viet Nam tried to include Vovinam, bodybuilding and dance sport in the competition programme but was not accepted by the host country.

According to the representative of Thailand, due to lack of conditions and funding, the abovementioned 3 sports could not be included in this year’s competition programme.

However, with the remaining sports, the delegation of Vietnamese athletes is still capable of competing for the top position at the 33^rd SEA Games.

Previously, the host country of Thailand announced that the 33^rd SEA Games would be organised according to international standards. The competition programme includes most of the sports in the Olympic and ASIAD systems, minimising the sports that are not really popular.

Unlike the two previous SEA Games which both took place in May, this year’s regional sporting event will be held at the end of the year from December 9 - 20, 2025.

Opportunities for Da Nang sports

Among the revealed sports are many of Da Nang's strengths such as athletics, swimming, wrestling, rowing, canoeing, traditional boat racing, sailing, karate, pencak silat, taekwondo, triathlon, and billiards & snooker.

The early announcement of the competition sports at the 33^rd SEA Games by the host country Thailand has helped local athletes feel secure in their training.

Rower Nguyen Lam Kieu Diem said “I am very happy that rowing has been included in the list of sports at SEA Games 2025. This is the motivation for me to strive to be called up to the national rowing team to compete in the regional sports event”.

Along with Nguyen Lam Kieu Diem, Pham Thi Hue and Tran Thi Kiet are the great hopes of Da Nang sports in rowing.

Meanwhile, in the canoeing category, Hien Nam has the opportunity to compete for a gold medal. This athlete has won many prestigious medals in canoeing. At the 32^nd SEA Games, when canoeing was not included in the list of competition sports, he switched to competing in traditional rowing and together with his teammates won 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal.

In others sports, Da Nang athletes can compete for medals if they maintain high performances such as Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuc, Nguyen Thanh Ngung (athletics), Tran Le Tan Dat (karate), Le Van Toan (pencak silat), Tran Thi Anh Tuyet (taekwondo), and Hoang Van Hai (triathlon).

According to Tran Do Quang, Deputy Director in charge of the Da Nang Sports and Gymnastics Athletes Training Centre, the 33^rd SEA Games is an important event for Da Nang sports, so the centre will create the most favourable conditions for local athletes to practice and compete regularly to have the best preparation.

Reporting by PHI NONG - Translating by M.DUNG, P.TRA