Sport in Singapore

Sport In Singapore

Singaporeans participate in a wide variety of sports for recreation as well as for competition. Popular sports include football (soccer), cricket, rugby union, swimming, badminton, basketball, cycling and table tennis. Most people live in public residential areas that often provide amenities including swimming pools, outdoor basketball courts as well as indoor sport centres which provide facilities for badminton, squash, table tennis, american football, gymnastics, indoor basketball and volleyball, among others.

Living on an island surrounded by the ocean, the people also enjoy many water activities including sailing, kayaking and waterskiing. There is also a number of avid recreational scuba divers, a prominent diving spot being the southern island Pulau Hantu, known for its coral reefs.

Association football is arguably the most popular spectator sport. Singapore has its own professional football league, known as the S.League. Launched in 1996, the league now consists of 10 teams competing with each other in stadiums around the country. In 1998, 2004 and 2007 the Singapore national football team became the champion of the Tiger Cup, the premier football competition in South-East Asia.

While not a major sporting power, Singapore's athletes have performed well in regional as well as international competitions, especially in table tennis, badminton, sepak takraw, bowling, sailing, silat, swimming and water polo. To date, Singapore has won two Olympic silver medals, one at the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics by weightlifter Tan Howe Liang and the other at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics in the women's double table tennis by Singapore players Li Jiawei, Feng Tianwei and Wang Yuegu. The country has come close thrice (all in women's single table-tennis, fourth-place finishes in 2000, 2004 and 2008). Some athletes such as Li Jiawei and Ronald Susilo have become national celebrities. In the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, Singapore won 5 Gold, 2 Silver, and 10 Bronze medals.

Read more about Sport In Singapore:  Recreational, Domestic Competition, Youth Olympic Games, Rugby Union

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