South Asian Games Explained

Above:	South Asian Games
Bodyclass:	hlist nowraplinks
Headerstyle:	border-top: 1px solid #aaa
Header1:	Games
Data2:	1984 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1999 2004 2006 2010 2016 2019 2025 2027 2031 2035
Header3:	Sports
Data4:	Archery Athletics Aquatics Badminton Baseball Basketball Boxing Canoeing Cricket Cycling Esports Equestrian Fencing Field hockey Football Golf Gymnastics Handball Judo Kabaddi Karate Kho kho Modern pentathlon Rowing Sailing Shooting Softball Squash Table tennis Taekwondo Tennis Triathlon Volleyball Weightlifting Wrestling Wushu
Header6:	Organisations
Data7:	South Asian Olympic Council NOCs

South Asian Games
Abbreviation:	SAG
Motto:	Peace, Prosperity Progress
Formation:	1984 South Asian Games, Kathmandu, Nepal
Recurrence:	Four years
Last:	2019 South Asian Games, Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal
Next:	2025 South Asian Games, Lahore, Pakistan
Leader Title:	Best performer
Leader Name:	India

The South Asian Games is a quadrennial multi-sport event held among athletes from South Asia. The South Asia Olympic Council, which was formed in 1983, governs it. The Games consist of seven countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan had participated in the Games four times, but left the SAOC after participating in 2016.

The first South Asian Games were hosted by Kathmandu, Nepal in 1984. From 1984 to 1987 they were held every year except 1986, as it was a year of Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. From 1987 onwards, they have been held every two years except for some occasions. In 2004, the South Asian Sports Council decided to rename the games from the South Asian Federation Games to the South Asian Games as officials believed the word federation was diminishing the emphasis on the event and acting as a barrier to attracting spectators.^[1]

These Games are often hyped as the South Asian version of Olympic Games. The XIII South Asian Games was held at Kathmandu, Pokhara and Janakpur from 1 December to 10 December 2019.

The South Asian Games is one of five subregional Games of the Olympic Council of Asia. The others are Central Asian Games, East Asian Youth Games, Southeast Asian Games, and West Asian Games.^[2]

Editions

Edition	Year	Host Cities	Host Nation	Nations	Sports	Events	Ref
1	1984	Kathmandu	Nepal	7	5	62	^[3]
2	1985	Dhaka	Bangladesh	7	7	94	^[4]
3	1987	Calcutta	India	7	10	116	^[5]
4	1989	Islamabad	Pakistan	7	10	114	^[6]
5	1991	Colombo	Sri Lanka	7	10	142	^[7]
6	1993	Dhaka	Bangladesh	7	11	115	^[8]
7	1995	Madras	India	7	14	143	^[9]
8	1999	Kathmandu	Nepal	7	12	163	^[10]
9	2004	Islamabad	Pakistan	8	15	170	^[11]
10	2006	Colombo	Sri Lanka	8	20	197	^[12]
11	2010	Dhaka	Bangladesh	8	23	158	^[13]
12	2016	Guwahati Shillong	India	8	22	226	^[14]
13	2019	Kathmandu Pokhara Janakpur	Nepal	7	26	317	^[15]
14	2025	Lahore	Pakistan	7	37	TBD
15	2027	Colombo	Sri Lanka	7	TBD	TBD
16	2030	Dhaka	Bangladesh	7	TBD	TBD
16	2034	TBA	India	7	TBD	TBD

List of sports

Following 29 sports have been competed in South Asian Games history till latest edition:

Medal table

Former member ¹
Rank	NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	India	1263	736	379	2378
2	Pakistan	297	421	432	1150
3	Sri Lanka	250	436	681	1367
4	Nepal	124	186	380	690
5	Bangladesh	86	210	493	789
6	Bhutan	2	23	66	91
7	Maldives	1	3	13	17
	Afghanistan	21	28	79	128

¹ Left SAOC and joined CAG.

Updated till 2019 South Asian Games

Medals by year

Rank! rowspan="2"

NOC	1984			1985			1987			1989			1991			1993			1995			1999			2004			2006			2010			2016			2019
1	India	44	28	16	61	32	14	91	45	19	61	43	20	64	59	41	60	46	31	106	60	19	102	58	37	103	57	32	118	69	47	90	55	30	188	92	28	175	92	45
2	Pakistan	5	3	2	21	26	12	16	36	14	42	33	22	28	32	25	23	22	20	10	33	36	10	36	30	38	55	50	43	44	71	19	25	36	12	35	57	30	41	57
3	Sri Lanka	7	11	19	2	7	9	4	7	23	6	10	21	44	34	40	20	22	39	16	25	53	16	42	62	17	32	57	37	63	78	16	35	54	25	64	98	40	84	128
4	Nepal	4	12	8	1	9	22	2	7	33	1	13	32	2	8	29	1	6	15	4	8	16	31	10	24	7	6	20	9	15	31	8	9	19	3	23	35	51	60	96
5	Bangladesh	2	8	13	9	17	38	3	20	31	1	12	24	4	8	28	11	19	32	7	17	34	2	10	35	3	13	24	3	15	34	18	23	56	4	16	55	19	32	89
6	Bhutan	0	0	2	0	0	4	0	1	5	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	6	7	1	3	2	0	3	10	0	2	3	0	1	15	0	7	13
7	Maldives	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	1	1	0	4
Former Member
	Afghanistan	Not part of SAOC																								1	3	28	6	7	16	7	9	16	7	9	19	Not part of SAOC

Performance table

Country	Top ranked	Second-ranked	Third-ranked
India	13 times
Pakistan		7 times	4 times
Sri Lanka		4 times	7 times
Nepal		2 times
Bangladesh			2 times

Updated till 2019 South Asian Games

South Asian Winter Games

References

http://www.rediff.com/sports/2004/apr/02sag.htm It will be South Asian Games
http://www.ocasia.org/Game/GamesL1.aspx?j72yDNndeVyJ2ChZBk5tvA== Games page
Web site: OCA » Kathmandu 1984. 2021-10-28. 2021-10-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20211028144438/https://www.ocasia.org/games/34-kathmandu-1984.html. live.
Web site: OCA » Dhaka 1985. 2021-10-28. 2021-10-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20211028144015/https://ocasia.org/games/33-dhaka-1985.html. live.
Web site: OCA » Calcutta 1987. 2021-10-28. 2021-10-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20211028154503/https://www.ocasia.org/games/32-calcutta-1987.html. live.
Web site: OCA » Islamabad 1989. 2021-10-28. 2021-10-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20211028160007/https://www.ocasia.org/games/31-islamabad-1989.html. live.
Web site: OCA » Colombo 1991. 2021-10-28. 2021-10-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20211028134659/https://ocasia.org/games/30-colombo-1991.html. live.
Web site: OCA » Dhaka 1993. 2021-10-28. 2021-10-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20211028154508/https://www.ocasia.org/games/29-dhaka-1993.html. live.
Web site: OCA » Madras 1995. 2021-10-28. 2021-10-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20211028154503/https://www.ocasia.org/games/28-madras-1995.html. live.
Web site: OCA » Kathmandu 1999. 2021-10-28. 2021-10-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20211028160004/https://www.ocasia.org/games/27-kathmandu-1999.html. live.
Web site: OCA » Islamabad 2004. 2021-10-28. 2021-10-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20211020062641/https://ocasia.org/games/26-islamabad-2004.html. live.
Web site: OCA » Colombo 2006. 2021-10-28. 2021-10-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20211020062131/https://ocasia.org/games/25-colombo-2006.html. live.
Web site: OCA » Dhaka 2010. 2021-10-28. 2021-10-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20211020014658/https://ocasia.org/games/16-dhaka-2010.html. live.
Web site: Home . southasiangames2016.nic.in . 2021-10-28 . 2021-10-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211028154504/http://southasiangames2016.nic.in/ . live .
Web site: Home . 13sagnepal.com . 2021-10-28 . 2019-11-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191117124232/https://www.13sagnepal.com/ . live .
Web site: 2010-11-25. South Asian Winter Games to have two opening and closing. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20121104232051/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-11-25/others/28260089_1_auli-dehra-dun-south-asian-winter-games. 2012-11-04. 2011-08-01. The Times of India.

External links

South Asian Games – official website (archived)