Thailand have been tipped to become overall medal champions at the upcoming Southeast Asian Games as men’s football gold remains the most coveted prize among voters in a recent sports poll.
The poll on “The 2025 SEA Games and the opportunities for Thai national athletes”, a collaboration between Kasem Bundit University’s Center of Innovation for Human Capital Development (CIHCD KBU) and the World Institute of Sports Development and Organization Management (Wisdom), was conducted among 1,209 participants, aged 18 years and over between Oct 1-3. Of these, 647 were male (35.51%), 402 were female (33.25%), and 160 were LGBTQIA++ (13.32%).
The survey found that 38.02% believed Thailand could become the overall medal champions, while 57.33% expected the national contingent to win more than 100 gold medals at the biennial tournament.
Football remains the most popular sport, receiving 29.60% of the votes, followed by volleyball (27.96%), sepak takraw (16.29%), badminton (13.50%) and taekwondo (9.66%).
The women’s volleyball was voted as the sport that the Thai team have the strongest chance to win gold with 26.80%. Sepak takraw came second with 24.10%, followed by muay (18.94%), futsal (13.35%) and athletics (12.08%).
The men’s football gold is the most wanted medal with 32.90% of the votes, followed by women’s volleyball at 30.88% and sepak takraw at 16.55%.
The 33rd SEA Games will take place from Dec 9-20 in Bangkok, Chon Buri and Songkhla, with 50 medal sports, three demonstration sports — air sports, flying discs and tug of war — and mixed martial arts featuring as a “value creation” event.
This will be the seventh time the Kingdom is hosting the event. The last time Thailand finished as overall champions was in 2015 in Singapore.