The 24 ^th SEA Games was held from 6^th to 15^th December, 2007 in three provinces in Thailand, namely Nakhon Ratchsima, Bangkok, and Chon Buri. In fact, the 2007 SEA Games was to be hosted by Singapore, but Singapore gave up the chance, as its new national sports stadium is under construction and will not be completed in time for the next SEA Games. Thailand was then asked by The SEA Games Federation to host this regional sport event in place of Singapore.
The SEA Games takes place every two years, with 11 countries in Southeast Asia participating. Each member country, in alphabetical order, takes turn hosting this event. Let’s look at the number of sports and gold medals in The SEA Ganes in recent years. The 21^st SEA Games, hosted by Malaysia in 2001, had 32 sports with 391 gold medals. There were 32 sports with 439 gold medals in The 22^nd SEA Games, held in Vietnam in 2003. The 23^rd SEA Games, in The Philippines in 2005, had 40 sports with 439 gold medals.
The 24^th SEA Games in Thailand this year, featuring 43 sports and 485 gold medals, had the highest number of sports and gold medals in The Asian Games and The Olympic Games. So The SEA Games is regarded as the largest regional sporting event in the world in terms of number of sports and madals.