Sport in Indonesia
Some popular sports in Indonesia are football, futsal, basketball, volleyball, badminton, and the native Indonesian martial art pencak silat.
[1] Indonesia hosts the National Sports Week (Pekan Olahraga Nasional) multi-sport event every four years.
In traditional Indonesian culture, there is no actual concept for physical exercise as the counterpart of modern sport.
The war dances and ritual combat among Indonesian tribes are the earliest example of ritualised physical exercise in Indonesia.
Dragon boat, canoe and kayak race are virtually everyday activities among Indonesians that lives on the bank of major rivers or on distant islands.
In the 9th century the images of archery, described as princely court activities among nobility in ancient Java, can be found on bas-reliefs of Javanese candis.
Pencak silat is the example of Indonesian native martial art that turned into competitive combat sport.
As the result the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium surrounded by sporting complex facilities were constructed in 1962 to host the fourth Asian Games held in Jakarta.
Today in international stage, Indonesia is successful in badminton and also has been one of the major multi-event sports powerhouse in Southeast Asia.
In 2016, Indonesia won a gold medal through mixed doubles, Liliyana Natsir and Tontowi Ahmad.
In 2020, Indonesia won a gold medal through women’s doubles, Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu.
Rudy Hartono is an Indonesian legendary badminton player, who has succeeded to win All England titles seven times in a row.
Some of the major teams include: Persib Bandung, Persebaya Surabaya, PSM Makassar, PSMS Medan, Persija Jakarta, PSIS Semarang, Sriwijaya FC, Persipura Jayapura, Bali United and Arema Malang.
On the international stage, Indonesia experienced limited success despite being the first Asian team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in 1938 as Dutch East Indies.
Several matches were played in Jakarta at the newly build Indonesia Arena inside the GBK sports complex.
Until now, volleyball has become one of the popular sports played by the Indonesian people, both as study material at school, to fill their free time, and as a means of competition.
While the FFI is effectively a member of PSSI, they have relative autonomy in terms of futsal governance in Indonesia.
Many tournaments have sprung up since then, especially for online games such as StarCraft, Quake III, Age of Empires II, and Counter-Strike.
In track cycling numbers, Indonesia is also one of the strongest in the region and often won gold medals in Southeast Asia Games.
[18] For non-athlete common Indonesians, riding bicycle is considered as the mode of transportation as well as a recreational and leisure sport.
The Bike-to-Work community was established in Indonesia in 2005 to promote cycling as a cheap, healthy, and environment friendly mode of transportation to the workplace.
Extreme cycling, such as Mountain biking and urban Freestyle BMX is also popular among youth in main cities of Indonesia.
Some famous Indonesian boxers include Ellyas Pical, three times IBF Super flyweight champion; Nico Thomas, Muhammad Rachman, and Chris John.
