The South East Asian Games Council comprising of 11 National Olympic Committees have just convened in Kuala Lumpur for an important meeting, where one of the topics is the confirmation of the 38 sports for the 2017 SEA Games. Muaythai (Muay), under IFMA has been announced as one of the 38 sports included in this programme.
This is fantastic news for both IFMA and FAMA and all South East Asian national federations, as it was in 1995 when Muaythai under IFMA and FAMA was first officially included in any multi sport games, which was in fact, the SEA Games. Since then, Muaythai has truly become an international recognised martial art and combat sport. It was 1998 when Muaythai was included as a demonstration sport in the Asian Games; 1999 IFMA, FAMA and Muaythai was officially recognised by the Olympic Council of Asia; 2006, recognised by GAISF, today known as SportAccord; 2008 by TAFISA; 2009 ARAFURA Games, 2013, Muaythai is recognised by the International World Games Association and included in the 2017 games as a full medal sport; 2015 Muaythai is recognised by FISU and included in the World University Championship Programme and 2016, Muaythai is also one of the 23 sports of AIMS, which has officially received recognition by the IOC.
Dato Shahnaz Azmi, Vice President of FAMA, has worked tirelessly together with the main national federations in South East Asia and the ASEAN Muay Federation (AMF) with the support of IFMA and FAMA to get included into the SEA Games. He especially thanked the Malaysian Olympic Committee and the Sports and Youth Ministry for supporting the benefits of the sport, its immense popularity especially in South East Asia and its cultural values and ethics in contributing to society.