Many sports were imported, some were developed from
native Indonesian traditional sports and became popular in Indonesia.
Badminton Badminton is Indonesia's most successful sport, described by the
New York Times as "part of the national identity". Indonesia has won gold medal in badminton in every Olympic Games since the sport was first introduced to the Olympics in 1992, except for two, in 2012 and 2024. In
1992, it came from
Alan Budikusuma in men's singles, and
Susi Susanti in women's singles. In
1996,
Ricky Subagja and
Rexy Mainaky got the gold medal in men's doubles. In
2000,
Candra Wijaya and
Tony Gunawan won the gold medal in men's doubles. In
2004,
Taufik Hidayat won a gold medal in men's singles. In
2008, Indonesia won a gold medal through men's doubles,
Markis Kido and
Hendra Setiawan. 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. Indonesian badminton athletes have played in various international badminton tournaments in
Indonesia,
China,
Korea,
Denmark,
Malaysia,
India,
Japan,
England and many other tournaments, including
Summer Olympics ever since the sport was introduced as a demonstration sport in the
1972 Summer Olympics and its official introduction in the
1992 Summer Olympics.
Rudy Hartono is an Indonesian legendary badminton player, who has succeeded to win All England titles seven times in a row. Out of all participating nations, Indonesia won the most titles in the
Thomas Cup (World Men’s Team Badminton Championships), winning 14 titles in 29 appearances. In addition to that, Indonesia has won the
Uber Cup (World Women’s Team Badminton Championships) 3 times and
Sudirman Cup (World Mixed Team Badminton Championships) once. Indonesia also held its own international badminton tournament, the most prestigious is
Indonesia Open that has been held annually since 1982 and
Indonesia Masters which has been held since 2010.
Football for
Asian Cup 2007 Football has become one of the most popular sports in Indonesia since the country's independence, even though it had virtually no presence in the country before then. in Indonesia, this phenomenon is most often ascribed to general worldwide popularity of the sport, which carried over into Indonesia following its rapid urbanization. It is played widely, both professionally and as recreation.
Liga Indonesia, the Indonesian domestic league is widely popular. Some of the major teams include:
Persib Bandung,
Persebaya Surabaya,
PSM Makassar,
PSMS Medan,
Persija Jakarta,
PSIS Semarang,
Sriwijaya F.C.,
Persipura Jayapura,
Bali United and
Arema Malang. The national body is the
Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI). The Indonesian football league started around 1930 in the
Dutch colonial era. In 1993, PSSI combined the existing
Perserikatan, an amateur competition, and
Galatama, a semi-professional league, to be a single professional competition for Indonesian football clubs, known as the Indonesian Football League (
Liga Indonesia). Starting from
2008–09 season onwards, the competition format changed into a more common system that is also being used in most European football leagues by adding a fully professional league by banning local government's funding, the Indonesia Super League, now
Liga 1. On the international stage,
Indonesia experienced limited success despite being the first Asian team to play for the
FIFA World Cup in
1938 as
Dutch East Indies, when they replaced the withdrawn
Japan. In 1956, the football team played in the
Olympics and played a hard-fought draw against
Soviet Union. The youth teams played in the
1979 FIFA World Youth Championship (
U-20, replacing three losing teams from the
1978 AFC Youth Championship) and
2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup (
U-17, qualified as hosts), eliminated in the group stage on both occasions. The 2023 U-17 World Cup was the first FIFA tournament to ever take place in the country. The U-17 team then qualified for the
2025 World Cup, the country's first successful qualification campaign to a FIFA tournament. On the continental level, Indonesia won the football bronze medal in the
1958 Asian Games. Indonesia's first appearance in
Asian Cup was back in
1996. The Indonesian national team has since qualified for the Asian Cup five times; in
2000,
2004,
2007,
2023, and
2027, advancing to the knockout stage for the first time in 2023.
Volleyball Volleyball in Indonesia has been played since the Dutch colonial era. After being played as an official sport at the 1951 National Sports Week, the
Indonesian Volleyball Federation was formed in 1955 and became the parent sport of volleyball in Indonesia. 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 and also Volleyball becoming second most popular sports among Indonesian youth behind another
American-invented sports Basketball. The volleyball competition in Indonesia has been running, at least since the 1980s, as a professional competition for domestic volleyball athletes.
Indonesia men's national volleyball team has also made several achievements in international competitions.
Basketball Basketball is one of the most popular sports especially among Indonesian youth. The Indonesia Basketball League (IBL) or
Liga Bola Basket Indonesia is the pre-eminent men's basketball league in Indonesia, competed by 160 clubs across the country. The competition started as Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) in 2003. In 2010, Perbasi appointed DBL Indonesia to handle the competition and changed the league's name to National Basketball League (NBL). The name changed back to IBL after Starting5 took over as the new league operator in 2015. The
Indonesia men's national basketball team's biggest success has been gold at the 1996
Southeast Asian Basketball Championship and the
2021 SEA Games. Indonesia hosted the official
2022 Asian Basketball Championship and the country co-hosted the
2023 Basketball World Cup, together with the Philippines and Japan. Although lately basketball has been proven as the most famous sport. Several matches were played in
Jakarta at the newly build
Indonesia Arena inside the
GBK sports complex. Additionally, a whole basketball league is dedicated to junior and senior students throughout Indonesia. This league is called DBL, which stands for
Development Basketball League.
Futsal Futsal is popular in Indonesia, with arenas in every city. Although futsal is relatively young in the country, it has become more popular due to the
Indonesia Futsal Federation (
Federasi Futsal Indonesia, FFI) which oversees the
Indonesia national futsal team, and the local professional futsal league for both
men and
women. While the FFI is effectively a member of
PSSI, they have relative autonomy in terms of futsal governance in Indonesia.
E-sports There is a significant competitive video game scene in Indonesia. The first esports tournament in the country was a
Super Mario Bros. competition, held in
Surabaya in 1989. Many tournaments have sprung up since then, especially for online games such as
StarCraft,
Defense of the Ancients,
Quake III,
Age of Empires II,
Point Blank,
Lost Saga, and
Counter-Strike. The esports scene in Indonesia received a significant boost when the country hosted the 2018 Asian Games, which included
esports as a demonstration event. There are also major tournaments for mobile games such as
Vainglory and
Mobile Legends held in
Jakarta. More recently, Indonesia hosted the third and final Major of the
Dota Pro Circuit season, the Bali Major 2023.
Extreme sports Extreme sports in Indonesia is increasing popularity such as
BMX,
Climbing,
Motocross and
Surfing, other extreme sports such as
Skateboarding is also popular among urban youth across major cities in Indonesia.
Climbing Climbing is the most popular extreme sports in Indonesia including
Sport climbing and the most popular type of climbing is
Competition climbing. In the
2024 Summer Olympics,
Veddriq Leonardo won the Olympic gold medal for speed climbing and became first non-Badminton athlete from Indonesia to win the Gold Medal.
Surfing Surfing in Indonesia is a relatively young sport in Indonesia, the most popular Indonesian area for surfing are at Pangandaran, Banyuwangi, Lombok, and Bali. The most famous surfer from Indonesia right now is Dede Suryana.
Pencak silat , an Indonesian martial art.
Silat is an Indonesian native martial art, and
pencak silat is an umbrella term for the indigenous
martial arts created in
Indonesia. The leading
organisation of pencak silat in Indonesia is IPSI (Ikatan Pencak silat Indonesia meaning Organization for Indonesian pencak silat). The liaison body for international pencak silat is the International Pencak Silat Association or PERSILAT (
Persekutuan Pencak Silat Antara Bangsa). There is many
perguruan (schools) and styles of pencak silat in Indonesia. Pencak silat has become one of sporting event in
Pekan Olahraga Nasional and
Southeast Asian Games with Indonesia as appear as one of the leading force in this sport. This martial art sport is also popular in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Cycling Indonesia host some international
road cycling tours; such as the annual
Tour de Indonesia,
Tour de Singkarak and
Tour de East Java. Inspired by European
Tour de France, these tours is one of the esteemed cycling event in Southeast Asian region and has attracted local as well as foreign cycling teams. Tour d'Indonesia usually started in Jakarta, across inland Java all the way eastward to
Bali, while Tour de Singkarak is held in
West Sumatra touring around
Lake Singkarak. In
track cycling numbers, Indonesia is also one of the strongest in the region and often won gold medals in Southeast Asia Games. Indonesia have world class
velodromes in
Rawamangun, Jakarta; and
Kutai Kartanegara,
East Kalimantan, hailed as one of the best velodrome in Southeast Asia. For non-athlete common Indonesians, riding
bicycle is considered as the mode of transportation as well as a recreational and leisure sport. It is quite popular in Indonesia, especially during
Car-Free Days in several cities. During weekends, especially around Saturday and Sunday morning, cyclist flocking Jakarta's main avenue such as Jalan Thamrin and Jalan Sudirman that is closed from cars, municipal authorities invited locals to have their sports and activities on the street. 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.
Boxing Boxing is a popular combative sport spectacle in Indonesia. Some famous Indonesian boxers include
Ellyas Pical, three times
IBF Super flyweight champion;
Nico Thomas,
Muhammad Rachman, and
Chris John.
Sepak takraw Sepak takraw spread from
China to the
Indonesian archipelago, the game is believed to have evolved from
cuju, a game similar to
association football that was used as
military training. In Indonesia, Sepak Takraw is also known as
Sepak Raga in the
local language in Indonesia. In
Sulawesi, the traditional
Bugis football game is called "Raga" (the player is called "Pa'Raga"). Some of the men playing the "Raga" circle in a group, the ball is passed from one to the other and the man who kicks the highest ball is the winner. "Raga" is also played for fun by demonstrating several tricks, such as kicking the ball and placing it on the player's head with the handle of the tengkolok bugis (Bugis headgear similar to a Malay
tanjak). After Sepak takraw was developed into modern competitive sport in 1940s with exact rules and scoring systems, Indonesia has become one of major sepak takraw power in the region, competing against Thailand and Malaysian teams.
Motorsport Motorsport in not a common sport in Indonesia, despite this, the sport has a huge following in Indonesia and there are some notable Indonesian motorsport competitors. For example,
Rio Haryanto was the first Indonesian driver who competed in
Formula One for
Manor Racing at the
2016 Formula One Season,
Sean Gelael is an ex
Formula Two driver and now competing in
World Endurance Championship for
W Racing Team,
Mario Aji is Indonesian
Moto2 driver for Idemitsu Honda Team Asia. Indonesia also held some races for
Formula E at
Jakarta International e-Prix Circuit and
MotoGP at
Mandalika International Street Circuit. Indonesia used to held
World Rally Championship in
1996 and
1997. And Indonesia planned to run WRC again in 2027 in Toba. ==Sports leagues in Indonesia==