2025 Thailand Sea Games
Philippine Olympic Commitee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino expressed optimism about the Filipino athletes’ ability to prepare for the 33rd Southeast Asian Games, which Thailand will host late next year.
“We have ample time and plenty of opportunities,” Tolentino said on Sunday from Bangkok, where he attended the SEAG Council Federation meeting that finalized the official dates, sports, and events for the biennial regional games.
The opening ceremony is scheduled on December 9, and the closing ceremony will be on December 20. The games will take place in Bangkok, Chonburi, and Songkhla.
Some 581 events across 50 sports and three demonstration sports, including tug of war and ultimate (frisbee), are on the program.
The Philippines clinched the overall championship in the 2005 and 2019 editions, which it hosted. However, the country finished fourth and fifth in the recent editions held in Vietnam (2022) and Cambodia (2023), respectively.
“Coming off our Olympic success in Paris and with the growing enthusiasm of our national sports association to make their marks in the SEA Games, our national federations and athletes have enough time to prepare and contend in Thailand,” Tolentino said.
He also said that the goal is to participate in as many sports as possible in Thailand.
“If possible, all sports,” he said.
Tolentino is encouraging national sports associations to religiously adopt the tried and tested template that produced the country’s first Olympic gold medalist, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo, in Tokyo 2020 and double gold medalist, gymnast Carlos Yulo, in Paris 2024.
“As they say, it takes a village, yes, it takes a village to produce champions,” said Tolentino, referring to a squad of coaches—sport, nutrition, strength and conditioning and sports science, medicine and psychology—that helped Diaz-Naranjo and Yulo clinched their lofty nooks in world sports history.
