Sustaining Youths' Interest in Sports after Olympics

Dr Lim Wee Kiak asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) whether there are plans by the Ministry to keep up the interest among Singaporean youths to take up sports in the aftermath of our success in the Olympic Games; and (b) whether more sporting events will be organised to ride on the prevailing enthusiasm, especially among school children.

The Olympics and Paralympics in Rio last year were watershed events for Singapore sports. We won our first ever Olympic Gold Medal and added two Gold and one Bronze medals at the Paralympics a month later. Singaporeans from all walks of life celebrated the hard work, determination and achievements of our Team Singapore athletes, who have inspired all of us not only to pursue sports with passion, but to strive to achieve our goals.

The Government has put in place a comprehensive framework to develop young sporting talents, from building a broad base of active youths, to strengthening our talent development pipelines that will nurture young aspiring athletes.

To encourage Singaporeans to adopt an active lifestyle, we launched ActiveSG in 2014. It has since garnered 1.2 million members, of whom almost 200,000 are between seven and 18 years old. ActiveSG launched the Football, Basketball and Tennis Academies, as well as the Athletics Club last year, to provide affordable and structured programmes for youths to do sports beyond Physical Education and Co-Curricular Activities. About 6,000 youths have benefited from these programmes. Another 150,000 from more than 300 schools have participated in the ongoing Sports Education Programme and School Holiday Sports Programmes each year. Through these programmes, we aim to build a stronger base from which talents could be scouted.

Last year, SportSG also organised the inaugural GetActive! Singapore. This inaugural national week of sports saw more than half a million Singaporeans participating, including 40,000 students from over 70 schools. GetActive! Singapore also incorporated the third edition of the Singapore National Games, which saw more than 10,000 participants competing across 21 sports. The National Games complements existing competitions organised by the National Sports Associations, both adding to a stronger pipeline of sporting talents.

For the young aspiring athletes, we have pathways for them through the Singapore Sports Institute, Singapore Sports School and National Youth Sports Institute, as part of our comprehensive High Performance Sports System to build a strong core of national athletes.

The Singapore Sports Institute provides comprehensive support to athletes of varying potential and development needs, through financial grants, training and coaching, sports medicine to personal development. Athletes assessed to have the potential to excel at the highest level are supported on spexScholarships which allow them to focus on training fulltime to develop to their fullest potential.

The Singapore Sports School allows young athletes to combine quality education with an excellent sports programme. The National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI) was launched in 2016 to provide support to youth athletes from both the mainstream schools as well as the Sports School. NYSI works closely with partners to enhance the youth sports eco-system in the areas of talent identification and development, youth coaching, sports science and athlete life management.

The work of the Singapore Sports Institute, Sports School and NYSI complements the important role played by our National Sports Associations and sports clubs in developing interest and grooming competitive athletes in their respective sports. Going forward, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth will continue to work with partners and stakeholders to enhance our High Performance Sports System.