Sunway Pyramid Ice presents
Fall in Love with Ice, with Malaysia's First Ever Ice Skating Rink
No snow or ice anywhere near Kuala Lumpur, and somehow we still produced Malaysia's first Winter Olympian and has hosted Asia's biggest skating competition six times before. Lace up and find out why Malaysians keep coming back to our ice skating rink.
Two ways to experience it
You don't need to compete to be part of this. Pick your ice.
Try it yourself
What it is: A public skating session, first-timers welcome, penguin skate-aids for anyone nervous about falling.
Time: Daily, walk-in.
Weekday sessions have room to actually learn without a crowd watching.
Book a sessionWatch the pros
What it is: Skate Asia 2026, the region's biggest recreational ice competition, live at Sunway Pyramid Ice.
Date/Time: 6-16 August 2026 (tentative schedule).
Watch skaters from across Asia land jumps a few metres from the escalators, free to watch from any of the mall's five floors.
Plan your visit for Skate Asia 2026What is Skate Asia
The competition returning to Sunway Pyramid Ice this August, for the 7th time
Skate Asia is the region's biggest recreational ice skating competition, run by the Ice Skating Institute of Asia. Picture hundreds of skaters, from six-year-olds on their first blades to seniors still chasing personal bests, all competing on one sheet of ice over more than a week. It's part sporting event, part spectacle, and it's free to watch from the mall floors ringing the rink.
Sunway Pyramid Ice isn't just hosting Skate Asia this year, it's the competition's home turf. The rink has carried this event since 1999 and returns for its 7th edition in 2026, running 6-16 August. Recent editions elsewhere in Asia pulled close to 1,000 to nearly 2,000 skaters and thousands of individual events on thin ice. This year, that energy lands back in Sunway City KL.
If you've never watched competitive figure skating up close, this can your first to many.
Skate Asia, by the numbers
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2026 host | Sunway Pyramid Ice, Malaysia (7th time hosting) |
| 2026 dates | 6-16 August (tentative schedule) |
| 2023 edition (Hong Kong) | 1,850 skaters / 4,400 events |
| 2024 edition (Taipei) | ~1,000 skaters / 2,870 events |
| 2025 edition | Jakarta |
| Malaysia's own annual event | Skate Malaysia, running since 2004, hosted 17 times |
How we got here
From one rink in Subang Jaya to the region's most established competition venue. It started with a mall taking a bet on ice in a tropical country.
| Year | Milestone | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Sunway Pyramid Ice opens | Malaysia's first ice rink. A 39m by 22.5m sheet, visible from five floors of the mall above it. Still draws around 15,000 skaters a month. |
| 1999-2020 | Sunway Pyramid Ice becomes Skate Asia's most-used venue | Sunway Pyramid Ice hosts the competition repeatedly across two decades, plus the World Ice Hockey 5's tournament three times. |
| 2004 | Skate Malaysia launches | A homegrown national competition, hosted at Sunway Pyramid Ice 17 times and counting. |
| 2018 | Julian Yee reaches Pyeongchang | The skater who learned to skate at Sunway Pyramid Ice at age five becomes Malaysia's first Winter Olympian. |
| 2026 | Sunway Pyramid Ice hosts Skate Asia for the 7th time | Two decades after first hosting the competition, Sunway Pyramid Ice remains its most established venue in the region. |
Where to skate
Six rinks nationwide, but only one has hosted the region's biggest competition seven times. Here's where the whole thing started, and where it's happening this August.
Where it all started, home of Skate Asia 2026
Sunway Pyramid Ice
Sunway Pyramid, Bandar Sunway, Selangor
Opened: 1997
Key spec: 39m x 22.5m, ~15,000 skaters/month
Entry: RM25-30
Julian Yee learned to skate here at age 4. Home of Skate Malaysia and Skate Asia 2026.
Book a sessionMalaysia's Ice Skating Champion
Julian Yee started exactly where you would start
He was four years old, standing on the same ice you can book a session on this weekend. No snow to train in, no local scene, so he talked rink staff into opening early so he could practise before the mall filled up. He broke his own brother's record as the youngest skater to win Malaysia's Junior Men's title, took the senior national title five years running, and in 2018 became the first Malaysian figure skater to qualify for the Winter Olympics on merit. He's since taken SEA Games gold twice.
The distance between "first time on skates" and "national champion" started with one rink deciding to let a kid on the ice before opening hours. That rink is still open, and still taking beginners.
Athlete stats
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Age he started skating, at Sunway Pyramid Ice | 4 |
| Malaysian senior national champion | 5x, 2013-2017 |
| First Malaysian figure skater at the Winter Olympics | 2018 |
| Personal best short program score, Pyeongchang | 73.58 |
| SEA Games gold | 2x, 2017 and 2019 |
Try Ice Skating Today
Getting on the ice yourself. You don't need to have grown up near snow, and neither did Malaysia's only Winter Olympian.
Book a class
Walk-in public sessions run RM25-30, skate rental included. Weekdays give you room to actually fall down and get back up without an audience.
Bring socks and gloves, or rent them there
Both are required. Nervous about balance? Ask for a penguin skate-aid at the counter.
Ask about the academy track
If your first session turns into "can we come back," Sunway Pyramid Ice runs structured beginner-to-competitive coaching, the same track Julian Yee started on.
