28/06/2026
The new SEA Plus Youth Games (SEA Plus YG) program generally excludes traditional regional sports like "Pencak Silat".
Although the sport is heavily prominent in the traditional SEA Games, the SEA Plus YG was specifically designed by the Philippine Olympic Committee to bridge the gap between Southeast Asian nations and global Olympic standards.
To prioritize grassroots Olympic and Asian Games disciplines. The mandate is to mold young athletes for broader international competitions (like the Youth Olympics) rather than focusing on Southeast Asian regional martial arts.
While Pencak Silat remains an established event in the standard biennial Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
Accordingly, the exclusion from the new youth-focused regional framework comes down to several factors;
• Olympic Pathway Focus: The SEA Plus YG specifically requires participating sports to align with the Asian Youth Games (AYG) and Youth Olympic Games (YOG). Pencak Silat is not an official YOG or Olympic discipline.
• International Governance & Growth: Because the Olympic movement prioritizes globally standardized sports, traditional martial arts face challenges gaining entry to wider, continental multisport events compared to widely adopted combat sports like Taekwondo, Judo, or Wrestling.
• Rotation Limits: The SEA Plus YG framework limits non-Olympic sports to a maximum of five Asian sports and one traditional sport (which rotates based on the host's discretion). With so few spots available for non-Olympic entries, Pencak Silat is often swapped out for other local traditional disciplines.
