Athletes, Organizers Ready for SEA Games

After decades of isolation, Myanmar gears up to host the region’s most important sporting event

By SAW YAN NAING / NAYPYITAW

In a new 30,000-seat football stadium here in Naypyitaw, Myanmar athletes warm up and begin exercising in the early morning hours, to prepare for the upcoming 27th Southeast Asian Games.

The athletes have been busy training every day to get ready for the biennial regional sports competition scheduled in December. This year’s SEA Games will be the first to be hosted by Myanmar in four decades.

At the Wanna Theikdi Stadium, Ma Kay Khine Lwin, a track and field athlete who will compete in the 100-, 200- and perhaps 400-meter races, cools down after her workout. “I want gold medals,” the 35-year-old says. “So I’m preparing to be the best. But the competition will be tough, as my competitors from Vietnam and Thailand are well-trained.”

But being the host country will have advantages, she adds. “We have a better chance than our competitors to win,” she says. “It is our home and our people will cheer for us.”

Ma Kay Khine Lwin has won several medals, including gold, in past SEA Games in Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Laos and Indonesia. But she says she worries about the prospects for Myanmar competitors as they lack access to experienced and knowledgeable trainers, who can guide them to success in regional competitions.

Myanmar previously hosted the

SEA Games in 1961 and 1969, both times in Yangon, which was then the country’s capital. The last event was organized seven years after a military coup ushered in a decades-long dictatorship under Gen Ne Win and his successors.

Myanmar subsequently skipped its turn to host the SEA Games several times due to its international isolation during military rule. With the start of reforms in the past two years under President U Thein Sein’s nominally civilian government, however,

Myanmar has found international acceptance and is finally able to host the regional competition again.

The 27th Sea Games, which will start on Dec. 11, will feature 35 different sporting events. The opening and closing ceremonies, and most competitions, will be held in the capital Naypyitaw. A number of events, including wrestling, hockey, weightlifting and some football games, will be held in Yangon and Mandalay. Ngwe Saung Beach will host a sailing competition.

Naypyitaw was built—at great expense and with the help of crony construction companies—by the former military regime, which moved the seat of government there in 2005. The upcoming SEA Games have provided authorities with an opportunity to go on another building spree in the young capital.

In the past year, construction firms have erected the massive Wunna Theikdi Stadium, which includes a swimming pool and an indoor stadium, the Zeyar Thiri Football Stadium, and a range of other sports facilities, such as an outdoor cycling track, an equestrian field and the Royal Myanmar Golf Course.

The Games’ opening and closing ceremonies will be held at Wunna Theikdi Stadium, the country’s largest. It was built by the Max Myanmar Group owned by Myanmar tycoon U Zaw Zaw, whose firm also built the Zeyar Thiri Stadium and Mandalay’s Thiri Football Stadium for the December events.

U Khin Maung Kywe, Max Myanmar Group’s construction director, said he was proud of the new Wunna Theikdi Stadium, which he said meets international standards with 30,000 seats, 500 VIP seats and CCTV cameras.

He said the SEA Games would promote a positive image of Myanmar’s culture, traditions and natural beauty, and would provide a boost for the economy and tourism.

“In the past, we did not have good infrastructure or good stadiums for sports,” he says. “Now we have good stadiums and players can practice well. Even after the SEA Games, Myanmar athletes can gain experience and keep practicing [at the facilities]. I hope Myanmar will produce more good athletes.”

The idea to organize the SEA Games came in May 1958, with an aim to promote friendship among Southeast Asian nations. Thailand was the first country to host the Games.

Myanmar has chosen the slogan “Green, Clean and Friendship” for this year’s event. But the country has tested its friendship with other competing nations after it allegedly cherry-picked sports that it plays best in order to improve its chances of obtaining medals.

“It’s ridiculous—whatever sports they want in, they get, and the ones they’ve chosen carry too many medals,” Charoen Wattanasin of Thailand’s Olympic Committee told Reuters in a reaction in February.

Myanmar organizers dropped popular regional sports such as tennis, beach volleyball and gymnastics, and included lesser-known traditional sports such kempo and vovinam (two martial arts forms popular in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) and chinlone. The latter is a traditional Myanmar version of cane ball that is unknown elsewhere in the region.

At Wunna Theikdi Indoor Stadium, U Aung Din, an advisor to the Ministry of Sports and Myanmar’s National Olympic Committee, watched a group of karate athletes train. “Myanmar’s athletics are now in the international spotlight,” he says. “It’s the highest stage we have ever had.”

However, he was concerned about a supposed tendency among some Myanmar athletes and fans to react aggressively to disappointment, especially during football games.

“Sports are supposed to build better friendships and close relations between players. But some have the mindset that they need to win. It’s a one-sided desire. It’s our people’s weakness. It also harms the image of the government and leaders,” he says.

“Some fans get angry, shouting and becoming violent when their team loses. They break things in the stadium. We need to have the mindset of gentlemen.”

Left: The Wunna Theikdi Stadium in Naypyitaw. Below: Myanmar athletes in training for the games