Cambodia announced that to enhance athlete safety, it is reducing its athlete contingent for the 2025 SEA Games.
On 27 November 2025, following severe flooding in Songkhla Province that trapped residents in their homes—some going without food for four consecutive days and forced to seek refuge on rooftops due to high water levels—the 2025 SEA Games planned to hold ten sports in Songkhla: chess, kabaddi, football, judo, karate, wrestling, pentjak silat, wushu, boxing, and petanque.
Recently, all ten sports were relocated to Bangkok and Chonburi provinces. Cambodia cited safety concerns as the reason for withdrawing from the SEA Games, despite events starting next month, pulling out of eight sports: judo, karate, pentjak silat, petanque, wrestling, wushu, football, and sepak takraw. This forced organizers to revise competition groupings in several sports, especially men's football.
Cambodia issued a statement saying, “Prioritizing athlete safety and to ensure maximum responsibility in competition participation, the leadership of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, especially following top-level guidance from the Cambodian government, decided to reduce risks by scaling back the number of sports contested in the flood-affected Songkhla area, including some other sports.”
"Currently, Cambodia’s athlete delegation has been reduced to only 150 representatives across 13 sports."
"This is a proactive intention and a difficult management decision to ensure safe participation and the safety of Cambodia’s athlete representatives."
"We hope Cambodian citizens will understand and accept this difficult decision. Thank you."