a malaysian abroad

Yesterday we took a look at the all-American pursuits of baseball, basketball, hockey and their version of football.  Today a malaysian abroad invites you to explore the popular sports of Malaysia and Switzerland.

Switzerland: football, ice hockey, skiing & snowboarding

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Football is really popular in Switzerland. It seems as if just about every city or town has a football team that plays in one league or another. The Swiss national football team participates in the World Cup; their best performances were back a generation ago. In the in the most recent World Cup 2006, they were eliminated from competition despite not having conceded even one goal - a record they would probably have preferred to do without!

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Like the USA, ice hockey is also very popular in Switzerland, both to watch and to play, although not quite as popular as football. The sport has been in play for a long time: one of the oldest international ice hockey competition for clubs after the Stanley Cup playoffs is the Spengler Cup, held every year between Christmas and New Year’s Day in Davos, Switzerland.

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In general, winter sports are highly popular. Downhill skiing is something almost everyone does, while the Engadin Skimarathon attracts over 12,000 cross-country skiers every year. The younger generation seems to prefer snowboarding. Just about every village, town and city has an ice skating rink, not just for ice hockey, but skating in general.

Malaysia: football, badminton, golf

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Like Switzerland, Malaysia is football crazy. The quality of football players of Malaysia leaves much room for improvement, however. As a result of close ties with the UK, it’s easy to find factions of MU vs Liverpool supporters in Malaysia. Malaysians also follow the World and UEFA Cups avidly - no thanks to the time difference, it’s all too common to have employees stumble in to work bleary-eyed but smiling from ear-to-ear because their team made it to the next round!

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Perhaps also a legacy from British colonisation, badminton remains a very popular sport in Malaysia.  It’s such an easy game to play casually - you just need the racquet and shuttlecock, not even a net! — although it’s very common to see kids playing from either side of a closed gate. Malaysia has produced many world champions in the past, including the Sidek brothers, and has won the Thomas Cup five times, although recently the Chinese seem to be dominating the sport.

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A sport that is probably available only to a much smaller portion of the population, golf is nonetheless growing in popularity among the established, and up-and-coming Malaysians.There are over 200 golf courses (and counting), some old and exclusive like the Royal Selangor Golf Club located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, providing a desperately-needed green lung in the congested city center.

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Of course, the above sports are not the only ones that Malaysians and Swiss participate in.  Tennis is a popular sport everywhere, with the US and Switzerland producing many world class players (not Malaysia though - we have a few professional players, but they are way out-classed!).  Malaysia does also play cricket (yet another British legacy!), while many Swiss consider curling a sport.

It looks like the sport played in all three countries would be football.  “Soccer” is gaining popularity in the US (Beckham playing for an American team helped bring some attention and publicity to it), while the rest of the world is pretty much football crazy.  … if only we didn’t have to say “soccer” for the Americans to know what the rest of the world is talking about!  *big grin!*

Related posts:
What are the popular sports of Malaysia, Switzerland and the USA?

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