Primer [sports]

By MAY CHEN

ABOUT THE BIG QUIZL Co-organisers: The Straits Times and the Ministry of EducationL Presenting sponsor: Singapore Press Holdings FoundationL Innovation partner: ShellL The run-up to The Big Quiz comprises:1. A series of 12 primers on current affairs topics2. Talks given by editors and correspondents ofThe Straits Times3. A sponsored segment on students’ say to set questions

THE BIG QUIZ CONTESTFour quiz rounds in which teams from participating schools willvie for the top prize: a championship trophy and $5,000 cashL Open to: First-year pre-university students and Year 5Integrated Programme students from 24 participating schools

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AS A sporting nation,Singapore has madeconsiderable strides inthe past decade.

Despite its smallpopulation of about five million,the Republic has managed to pro-duce world-beaters and regionalchampions across a variety ofsports.

Sailors alone have accountedfor at least 19 world titles since2004. Other sports, such as bowl-ing and shooting, have also pro-duced winners on the globalstage.

The nation’s sporting triumphspeaked at the Beijing Olympics in2008, when Feng Tianwei and Coclinched a table tennis team silverto end Singapore’s 48-year medaldrought at the Games.

The same team then toppledpowerhouse China in the final ofthe World Team Championshipsin Moscow two years later.

Yet, one aspect of Singaporesport is largely unchanged: Thevast majority of local athletes re-main amateurs, with few willingto commit to a full-time career.

Out of some 1,000 athletescarded by the Singapore SportsCouncil (SSC) yearly, only a hand-ful are full-time sportsmen. Thebulk are students and workingadults who split their time be-tween studies or work, and train-ing.

This, despite the slew of initia-tives that the Government has in-troduced over 20 years – the mostrecent being the revised HighPerformance Sports (HPS) system– in a bid to encourage more ath-letes to consider sport as afull-time career.

But why are so few willing totake a leap of faith?

Money is arguably the most sig-nificant factor.

Too often, many nationalsports associations, which arefunded by the SSC, find them-selves incapable of offering theirbiggest talents an attractiveenough salary in exchange fortheir total commitment.

Major sports such as netball,football and shooting have typical-ly been placed on the highest tiersof funding and have traditionallyreceived more than $1.5 million ingrants annually.

But with the bulk of thisamount going to paying staff sala-ries, coaching fees and runningtournaments and community pro-grammes, there is usually hardlyany surplus to go around.

Those in sports such as badmin-ton, golf and table tennis are morefortunate because they cancompete in professional tourna-ments around the world and areable to supplement their incomethrough prize money if they dowell.

Singapore’s No. 1 golferMardan Mamat, for instance, took

home more than $700,000 in tour-nament earnings in 2010.

But athletes in sports like gym-nastics and swimming do nothave such opportunities to earnregular incomes. Instead, their on-ly “earnings” in sport come fromthe Singapore National OlympicCouncil’s Multi-million DollarAward Programme (MAP).

Sponsored by the Tote Boardand Singapore Pools, it gives med-allists at major Games cash prizes,ranging from $10,000 for an indi-vidual SEA Games gold to $1 mil-lion for top honours at the Olym-pics.

Gymnast Lim Heem Wei, for ex-ample, was rewarded with$40,000 when she won Singa-pore’s first gymnastics silver atthe 2010 Commonwealth Games.

There are, of course, schemesput in place by the SSC to supportathletes financially. These includethe Sports Excellence (Spex) train-ing assistance grant, the AthletesCareer and Training programme(ACT) and the Spex grant for lossof wages (Glow).

Under these schemes, a topcarded athlete can receive up to$7,200 a year in training assist-ance grants, as well as up to$50,000 a year under the ACT.

Should an athlete take time offwork to train in preparation for asporting event, he or she also qual-ifies for up to $2,000 a month (upto $12,000 a year) in compensa-tion for the loss of salary underspexGlow.

But it is unrealistic for athletesto rely only on bonuses such asthe MAP awards, since theseevents are not held yearly. TheSEA Games are biennial, whereasthe other three – the AsianGames, the CommonwealthGames and the Olympics – arequadrennial.

Furthermore, the majority ofathletes do not fall into the selectgroup of elites who excel on the in-ternational stage. They thereforeget a smaller share when it is timeto divide the pie.

Unlike their counterparts incountries like the United States,Singapore athletes also do nothave the luxury of earning lotsfrom personal endorsement deals.

America’s all-around cham-pion gymnast Gabby Douglas, forinstance, is estimated to pull inbetween US$1 million (S$1.2 mil-lion) and US$3 million a year in en-dorsements leading up to the 2016Rio Olympics.

Athletes also know their ca-reers have a limited lifespan andcan be cut short by injury at anytime. Most want something morestable for the long term. If theyare adults, that means a job. If theathletes are still young, they, ortheir parents, are likely to plumpfor the paper chase over the pros-pect of sporting glory.

But for all these hurdles, thetide is turning – slowly but sure-ly. The SSC piloted the Pro-gramme for Elite Athletes’ Careerin 2006, a scheme designed topair top athletes with companieswhere they can enjoy a flexiblework environment, allowing themto continue their elite sports train-ing and participation in competi-tions.

Swimmer Sng Ju Wei and bow-ler Rena Teng, for instance, werelinked up with Standard Char-tered Bank.

The scheme has since evolvedinto the Athlete Friendly Work-place Scheme.

While these examples remainthe minority and most corpora-tions in Singapore have yet towarm to the idea of supportingathletes in this regard, more arejumping on the bandwagon.

More recently, Canon Singa-

pore partnered SingaporeBowlingto provide internship and job op-portunities for both current andformer national bowlers.

Athletes today are more willingto contemplate a full-time career,even though they still maintainthe same concerns about their fu-tures and livelihoods.

It is partly a result of greateroverall holistic support – even inareas such as sports science, nutri-tion and sports medicine.

With examples of success sto-ries before them, athletes are nowalso bolder in taking the road lesstravelled.

Last year, sailors Colin Chengand Elizabeth Yin and shooter Jas-mine Ser all deferred their studiesto train overseas before the Lon-don Games, even when their tick-ets to the Olympics had not beenassured. Gymnast Lim droppedmodules in university to better fo-cus on training.

This year, the national men’s4x100m relay team has been train-ing full-time since January in pur-suit of a starting berth at theWorld Championships in Athlet-ics in August and a gold at Decem-ber’s SEA Games.

It involved Singapore Manage-ment University’s Gary Yeo, 26,and Nanyang Technological Uni-versity’s Lee Cheng Wei, 26, and

Calvin Kang, 22, deferring theirstudies.

The Singapore Tennis Associa-tion’s pioneer full-time pro-gramme for juniors started withfour players last year, and addedthree more to its stable this year.They are aged from 13 to 16.

The introduction of the HPSscheme by the Ministry of Cul-ture, Community and Youth hasalso been touted as a potentialgame-changer.

Under it, scholarships worth$40 million over five years will beoffered to about 60 athletes fromthis year, giving them more com-prehensive support in the form ofstipends, on top of covering thecosts of coaching, equipment andcompetitions.

But as then Prime Minister GohChok Tong said when he launchedthe ACT initiative in 2002: “TheGovernment alone cannot trans-form Singapore into a sporting na-tion.”

Indeed. A vibrant sportingscene, where athletes plunge unre-servedly into sport, is not onethat can be built overnight.

It will take time, as well as am-ple support from stakeholderssuch as parents, sports administra-tors, corporate sponsors and em-ployers.

maychen@sph.com.sg

SPORTS excellence, whilenot a foreign idea, is onethat is still relativelynew to Singapore.

The Republic beganfocusing on elite sports onlyabout 20 years ago, when the Gov-ernment pledged more funds toback the quest for medals.

Until then, Singapore’s morenotable sporting achievementswere limited to weightlifter TanHowe Liang’s Olympic silver in1960 and swimmer Ang PengSiong’s gold at the 1982 AsianGames.

Sports Excellence 2000 – orSpex 2000 – was launched in1993.

The $10 million blueprint wasaimed at helping Singaporeathletes train and compete with-out being unduly distracted by

money or studies. The goal: AsianGames and Olympic success.

Funds were injected into justseven Core sports: athletics, bad-minton, bowling, football, swim-ming and water polo, sailing andtable tennis.

Almost a decade later in 2002,the Athletes Career and Trainingprogramme was launched. It wastargeted at providing a viable safe-ty net for athletes through assist-ance in education and jobs aftersports.

Sprinter U.K. Shyam was thefirst beneficiary, receiving up to$35,000 in grants a year.

The scheme, still a part of theSingapore Sports Council’s sup-port programme today, aids about50 athletes each year.

The search for Olympic glorycame later in the form of Project

0812, which evolved into theOlympic Pathway Programme in2009.

Both programmes promisedmillions for athletes who had thepotential to reach the podium at

the Games. The Olympic PathwayProgramme, for instance, pouredits $6.5 million war chest into 11

athletes across four sports.The shift of focus to sports ex-

cellence has played a considerablerole in Singapore sport’s goldrush.

At the 1990 Beijing AsianGames, Singapore’s 131-strongcontingent took home one silverand four bronzes.

By the 2010 Guangzhou edi-tion, Team Singapore’s 240 ath-letes had bagged four golds, sevensilvers and six bronzes.MAY CHEN

Athletes are now bolder in taking the road less travelled. Gymnast Lim Heem Wei (above) dropped modules in university to better focus on training. ST FILE PHOTO

Sprinter U.K. Shyam was the first beneficiary of the Athletes Career and Training programme. The scheme, still a part ofthe Singapore Sports Council’s support programme today, aids about 50 athletes each year. ST FILE PHOTO

This is the fifth of 12 primers on various current affairs issues, which will be published in therun-up to The Straits Times-Ministry of Education National Current Affairs Quiz.

At the 1990 BeijingAsian Games,Singapore’s 131athletes took homeone silver andfour bronzes.By the 2010Guangzhou edition,Team Singapore’s240 athletes hadbagged four golds,seven silvers andsix bronzes.

PRIMER

Is a career as a full-time athlete feasible?

THE SINGAPORE PERSPECTIVE

A brief history ofSports Excellenceprogrammes

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