Nakhon Ratchasima 2026 ASEAN Para Games - NBT Broadcast Opening Sequence

Описание: Copyright (c) 2025-26 National Broadcasting Service of Thailand (NBT)

The ASEAN Para Games, which involves 11 countries across the region, are considered to be a twin event of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games but caters to disabled athletes.

Its beginnings came in May 2000, when delegates from countries in Southeast Asia attending the Malaysian Paralympiad in Kuala Lumpur had a meeting and agreed to establish a disabled sport organization. The ASEAN Para Games was conceptualized by Zainal Abu Zarin, the founding president of the Malaysian Paralympic Council. The proposed rationale was that a regional para-sports event would be held after the SEA Games, and to help promote friendship and solidarity among persons with disabilities in the ASEAN region and to rehabilitate and integrate persons with disability into mainstream society.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

17 years after it last staged the event in January 2008, the ASEAN Para Games once again came back to Nakhon Ratchasima for the event's 13th iteration. Held from 20 to 26 January 2026, this came weeks after the conclusion of Thailand's 2025 SEA Games that took place at Chonburi and the capital Bangkok.

Thailand's northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima, better known for short as 'Korat' by locals, was chosen to host the Para Games after its sole bid was chosen by the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT) on 13 January 2023. The Games would utilize much of the existing venues across Korat, which include those already used for the Southeast Asian Games in 2007 and the ASEAN Para Games in 2008. But the only noticeable exception is para bowling, which took place in an outlying venue in Bangkok due to the lack of a suitable venue in Nakhon Ratchasima.

Nakhon Ratchasima 2025 were the largest Para Games in history with 536 medal events featured across 19 sports, which include the returns for para sport shooting and wheelchair fencing (for the first time since 2015), as well as para cycling, para bowling (last included in 2017), and even wheelchair tennis - which was last present in the pandemic-postponed 2022 Games held in Indonesia.