Singapore has a wide variety of sports, both indoor and outdoor. It can be traced back to colonial times when the development of sports was rapid. The country has a rich heritage of various traditional games like Capteh, Encang Kuda, Gasing and Goli. Most Singaporeans residing in residential areas live with amenities like swimming pools, badminton and tennis courts etc.
Singapore is also surrounded by water bodies that encourage water sports like swimming and kayaking. The country holds its own football league called the Singapore Premier League, and Formula One World Championships. Regardless, it’s safe to say that Singapore has become a hub for modern sports, so let’s look at the top 5 sports in the country.
Soccer
The Football Association of Singapore was established in 1892, thus indicating a long history in football. The first ever participation by the nation was in the Malaysia Cup in 1921, where they won 24 titles till 1994, which is also the year when they grabbed the title. They won the AFF Championship four times and were the first team to do so. They also hold the record for being the only team to win all finals they played in.
Some of the most talented players are Fandi Ahmad and Daniel Bennett. Ahmad has scored 55 goals in 101 games and captained the team for 5 years. Daniel holds the record for the most caps for Singapore with 146 appearances. The current squad includes Izwan Mahbud, Rudy Khairullah and Syazwan Buhari.
Baseball
Baseball has an interesting history as it was introduced by the British colonists for recreation in the 19th century. Singapore has a national baseball team that participates in international tournaments. They were among the top 5 teams in the Asian Baseball Cup 2004 and in sixth position in the 2002 edition. They improved their position to the 4th place in 2012 in the same league.
They came second in the WBSC Hong Kong International Baseball Open twice in 2017 and 2018. The sport has a huge fan base in the country and it’s played locally by common people. Among notable players are Robin Jennings, Eleazar Ng who was also awarded Pitcher with Best Earned Run Average at the East Asian Cup and Kohei Wong who was the first Singaporean to join the game professionally.
Badminton
Badminton was also among the few sports brought by the colonists since then, the nation has given us some of the most prominent players in the history of the sport like Wong Peng Soon, who was the first Asian to win the All-England men’s singles title four times, Wong Shoon, who grabbed the gold at SEA Games 1982 and Li Li who won the first ever gold by in women’s singles in Commonwealth Games 2002.
Singapore owns 3 Thomas Cups, and Loh Kean became the men’s singles world champion at the BWF World Championships.
Also Read: Singapore Open 2025: All You Need To Know
Swimming
Being surrounded by water, Singapore has a great love for swimming. They won four gold medals at the Asian Games in 1951, Junie Sng became the first ever Singaporean woman to win gold in the Asian Games in 1978.
Tao Li won gold in the Asian Games 2006, and Joesph Schooling won gold in the Olympics which was the country’s first Olympic medal in the game. His time of 50.39 seconds also set a new Olympic record. Singapore won a record-breaking 42 medals at the SEA Games in 2015.
Basketball
Basketball was introduced in 1925, and it quickly gained popularity in schools and colleges. Singapore Amateur Basketball Association was established in 1946 and in 1964 they started an annual Sports Festival, which is now called the Merlion Cup.
The national team has also won 2 bronze medals in the Southeast Asian Basketball Championship and thrice in the SEA Games. Delvin Go, Ng Han Bin are among the most promising players in the sport.
