Sporting Success

Mdm Deputy Speaker, I support the amendments to the Motion raised by Mr Darryl David.

But let me start by assuring the House that regular and consistent review and evaluation are conducted as part and parcel of our High-Performance Sports (HPS) ecosystem. Through our review, we examine: (a) what has worked, (b) what has not worked, (c) what we could do differently and (d) chart our future priorities.

Our goal is to win, of course. But we must accurately define what “winning” is. While recognising that we cannot compete directly with countries that have large populations, we have also performed well in many sports, including swimming, sailing, table tennis, badminton, silat – just to name a few.

Assoc Prof Jamus Lim distributed a handout suggesting that GDP per capita spending is a predictor of sporting success. First, I wish to point out that the handout does not attribute what the data sources are. Second, saying that sporting success can be pinned down to one predictor is perhaps overly simplistic and shows a lack of understanding of the complexity of our sporting endeavour. In fact, the scatter plot provided by Assoc Prof Jamus Lim himself substantiates the point that perhaps there is no correlation between spending and achievement, given the spread of the data points. So, let us not data mine.

Many more factors are at play, depending on the operating context across countries, and this should also not be limited to just medals, because they are just the tip of the iceberg. Instead, we focus on the development of the sport ecosystem and support systems – a journey that may take an athlete eight to 12 years – to get athletes to the peak of their performance, to realise their full potential, often at a major games or major championships, against the best in Asia or the world. The book, Project 0812, encapsulates this belief, highlighting how our achievements at the Olympics were 20 years or more in the making.

Our basis is the well-researched and internationally recognised SPLISS model. SPLISS stands for “Sports Policy Factors Leading to International Sporting Success”. This model focuses on key components that make up successful sports ecosystems. In this model, researchers identified nine pillars underpinned by 96 critical success factors that successful sporting nations exhibit. This model has helped us review existing high-performance infrastructure as well as identify gaps and determine priorities for infrastructure development on a sport-by-sport basis.

And we have seen results of these efforts. Bowler Shayna Ng clinched the International Bowling Federation Super World Championships Women’s Single Title in 2021. She is also Chair of SNOC's Athletes’ Commission, representing and advocating for our athletes. Silat athlete Sheik Farhan secured his fourth World Championship Title at the 19th World Pencak Silat Championships in 2022. Farhan also clinched the Singapore Youth Award in 2019 and was also the first Silat exponent to make the Forbes “30 Under 30 Asia” list.

At the recent SEA Games, our athletes delivered stellar results – 51 golds, 43 silvers, 64 bronzes – sixth not seventh, that Assoc Prof Jamus Lim mentioned earlier, in the medal tally table. What is perhaps even more important were the eight Games records, 17 national records and 40 personal bests (PBs). Particularly significant were the PBs, podium finish or otherwise. These are powerful testimonies of our athletes striving to be the best sporting versions of themselves. After all, it is not just about winning medals, as hon Member He Ting Ru has mentioned in her speech as well. As Australian Olympic swimmer and gold medallist Bronte Barratt puts it, it is about trying to win. The motto is "faster, higher, stronger”; not “fastest, highest, strongest”.

Our youths and debutants, too, did us proud. Debutants won 30% of Team Singapore gold medals. As Ms Poh Li San mentioned, Izaac Quek swept all the table tennis men’s events, winning all three golds in singles, doubles and team. Swimmer Nicholas Mahabir also performed spectacularly, winning two golds in the relay events as well as three individual silvers. And it is perhaps worth noting that Izaac was just 16 at the time and Nicholas 18.

Our para-athletes were also outstanding –12 golds, 15 silvers and 17 bronzes; smashed nine Games records, 16 national records and 17 personal bests, all from a small contingent of 25 para-athletes. Swimmer Colin Soon not only won four golds and one silver but also shattered four Games and national records.

These achievements were only possible because of the “village” behind our TeamSG athletes. Family members, caregivers and friends whose enduring love, sacrifice and belief gave our athletes the strength to turn dreams into reality, something that Member Ms Sylvia Lim is very familiar with. Coaches, for investing time and energy and being role models for our athletes; coach Roland, along with Lionel Leong and Ang Peng Siong, have been instrumental in our swimmers’ journey and I was glad that we were able to get Roland that opportunity to present a medal to Colin, his last gold medal. And you can feel and see for yourself that exhilaration on Roland’s face. And not forgetting our sports associations and councils, chefs de missions, corporates, Team Nila volunteers and fans who were a constant source of support for our athletes.

How then are champions made? In the next half an hour or so, I want to bring Members into a time warp by illustrating the support that our HPS systems provide through the lens and “life course” of a hypothetical young boy, five-year-old Samuel. To be clear, the boy is hypothetical but the programmes and policies are real.

Samuel and his family live in a HDB flat with an open-air hardcourt downstairs. Noticing his love for sports, Samuel’s parents considered a range of options for him to explore his interests – sports co-curricular activities (CCAs) in schools, ActiveSG programmes, private academies and clubs as well as private coaching.

The parents signed Samuel up for programmes run by ActiveSG academies and clubs, whose variety meant Samuel tried out different sports at a very young age. Samuel’s parents gladly utilised ActiveSG credits that have been provided since 2014, not knowing that these credits probably helped raise sports participation among Singaporeans from 54% in 2015 to some 74% in 2022. And this was driven by our belief that grassroots participation and high performance are not at odds. In fact, they go hand in hand as part of our sporting ecosystem.

At Primary 4, Samuel’s teacher nominates him to go for the Junior Sports Academy (JSA) selection trials, a collaboration between the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI). Under this programme, primary school students like Samuel with higher abilities in the physical domain try out different sports and identify where their talent and passion lie. Samuel has lots of fun playing four different sports and, during the programme, he discovers his love for badminton.

In the JSA programme, Samuel meets Syahbil and understands that Syahbil was exposed to sports through the SportCares Saturday Night Lights football programme, one of several programmes that provide bursaries for children that come from low-income families to learn a sport. Samuel is particularly inspired by Syahbil as he also goes the extra mile to help others in need and give back actively by volunteering through SportCares. As their friendship develops, Samuel looks for opportunities to play badminton with Syahbil outside of school and outside of the JSA.

Samuel looks forward to the upcoming sporting facilities that will be built around his neighbourhood. Based on the last three to five years, an average of S$90 million is spent annually to develop and operate stadiums, running tracks, sports halls, pools and other public facilities. And Samuel is particularly excited about the Toa Payoh Integrated Development (TPID) because it is near home and he knows that there will be many more badminton courts.

And he has high hopes for the facility because he had visited Bukit Canberra before. Bukit Canberra featured facilities, such as indoor sports halls, swimming pools, gyms, fitness studios, a hawker centre and a polyclinic. And Samuel has also heard from his friends about the Sport-in-Precinct facilities in Nee Soon Central, Woodlands and Gek Poh as well as the rejuvenation works that were done to the Delta and Choa Chu Kang Sport Centres. For now, Samuel is glad that the Dual-Use Scheme (DUS) is in place because that means that 140 indoor sports halls and 100 school fields, roughly half of which are free, are readily made available to the public.

Soon, the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) looms ahead but Samuel is thrilled to join the Singapore Sports School (SSP) via the Direct School Admission (DSA). In Samuel’s mind, SSP is where he can pursue both sporting and academic excellence.

Today, SSP has 10 academies, such as shooting as well as individual programmes that accept students from other sports, such as wushu. Past and present student-athletes have also performed well at Major Games and Championships. For instance, two-thirds of our athletes winning medals and 58% of debutants at the 2023 SEA Games were from the Sports School. They also accounted for about 30% of the medals and gold medals won by Team Singapore.

On the academic front, SSP students had also done well – 67% of student-athletes scored at least 40 points out of the maximum 45 points for IB exams while more than 95% of the GCE “O” level cohort qualified for junior college or polytechnic courses.

SSP also takes care of athletes’ life issues, for instance, providing education and counselling guidance. Samuel’s friends have also shared with him about fellow SSP student-athlete, fencer Juliet Heng – a real person, by the way – who had done an excellent job of balancing her academic pursuits with her sporting ambitions.

Like Samuel, Juliet came through the JSA in 2015, where she participated in four sports, including fencing. Juliet then took up SSP’s Learn-to-Fence programme in January 2017 and joined SSP’s fencing academy the year after. Progressing over the years, Juliet qualified for the Asian and World Cadets and Juniors Fencing Championships in 2021. She was youth-carded in 2022, placing her on the high-performance pathway as a junior athlete. As a result of her youth-carding, Juliet received funding support which fully subsidised her participation in local and overseas competitions and facilitated her development as an athlete.

Juliet fenced her way to the top 32 at the 2022 World Fencing Championships and quickly became a spexScholar in 2023. At the recent SEA Games, Juliet became the first JSA graduate to win a gold medal in the Women's Individual Sabre and also winning a joint bronze in the Women's Team Sabre in her debut SEA Games outing – all while excelling in her studies and managing a GPA of 3.55 out of 4 in the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Sports School Diploma Programme in Business Studies.

As a spexScholar, Juliet received increased support, opening doors to greater opportunities, including partaking in more than eight International Fencing Federation competitions and overseas training camps with other top-tier fencers, which contributed to her ascent in the world rankings.

Juliet was also provided comprehensive assistance, including tailored programmes in areas, such as strength and conditioning, psychology, biomechanics, nutrition and many other essential elements, that contribute to her holistic growth as an athlete.

Back to Samuel, who has since joined the Singapore Sports School, displaying several strong performances in youth-level competitions. However, he finds the transition from youth-level competitions to senior tournaments challenging. Nevertheless, Samuel presses on, drawing encouragement from sport climber Luke Goh who similarly recognised the difficulty of youth-to-senior transitions, where "everyone's mindset and mentality just got more cut-throat and intense". But yet, Luke scaled that transition to secure a bronze medal at the 2022 International Federation of Sport Climbing Asian Cup.

Luke was also, coincidentally, one of the first youth athletes whom I had met when I first took on the role of Parliamentary Secretary at MCCY. Luke's steely resolve to shine at sport climbing, even at a young age then, left a deep impression on me. He is a perfect example of how NYSI has been supporting emerging sports, such as sport climbing, bicycle motocross (BMX) and skateboarding.

Fast forward a few years. Samuel has since graduated from SSP and has enlisted into NS. He is grateful that since this year, spexScholars are allowed to retain their scholarship while serving NS as well as have existing provisions to support their training and preparation of our national athletes, taking into account the specific circumstances of the athlete, his sport, subject to the SAF and Home Team's operational requirements.

Samuel met Team Singapore hurdler Ang Chen Xiang, who gives him confidence to do well both in sport and in NS. It was challenging, to say the least, for Chen Xiang, having to manage training and competitions alongside heavy commitments as a medical officer in the First Commando Battalion. Yet, Chen Xiang clinched the silver medal in the men's 110 metres hurdles final at the 31st SEA Games last year while serving NS. He continued to deliver a stunning performance at this year's SEA Games after he "ORD-ed", clinching a gold medal in the same event – as the first Singaporean champion in the event since 1967.

Chen Xiang credits his performance to his fellow medical officers who had covered his duties when he was away for competition. This gives Samuel quiet confidence that his colleagues will be equally supportive.

Samuel has since "ORD-ed", balancing university with his sporting ambitions. That has not been easy, but Samuel is glad, however, that the spexEducation scheme helps him to juggle sports and education by supporting him with school admissions, scholarships and scheduling his classes around training and competitions.

The scheme has been made possible through agreements between SportSG and 16 partner Institutes of Higher Learning and has benefited more than 600 athletes since 2013.

Samuel knows that he will soon need to balance his sporting pursuits not with studies but with his work commitments. Nevertheless, Samuel is grateful that spexBusiness partners, including Grab, MOH Holdings and Nestle, hire around 390 athletes, which provide for flexible work arrangements to support their training and competition schedules.

This is in addition to spexTAG or Training Assistance Grant, which helps to defray athletes' training cost, as well as spexGLOW or Grant for Loss of Wages, which offsets lost wages sustained from missing work due to preparation or competition at the major games. That supports around 800 athletes.

Samuel is also glad that he can train at the Singapore Sports Hub that has really blossomed into a vibrant sporting and lifestyle precinct for athletes and the general community alike.

The National School Games Finals at the Sports Hub are now a common affair and it warms Samuel's heart to see inter-generational families spending their evenings and weekends enjoying community programmes at the Sports Hub. He also looks forward to competing for a medal at the Sports Hub in his maiden participation in the Singapore Badminton Open, a Super 750 event that has made Singapore one of the most prestigious spots on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour, only behind the World Tour Finals and the four Super 1000 tournaments.

Samuel loves the challenge and he knows he has home ground support.

Years have passed since. Samuel is now an aspiring Olympian and receives an even larger tranche of support as compared to when he was younger.

This mirrors the support that shuttler Loh Kean Yew receives today, including annual grants that provide access, including but not limited to technical directors, coaches, National Training Centres and tailored sports science and sports medicine support.

After the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Kean Yew was invited to train with Viktor Axelsen in Dubai. This played a pivotal role in Kean Yew winning the BWF World Championships in 2021. This and subsequent Dubai training camps were also funded by the spexScholarship programme.

Singapore Sport Institute's (SSI) Athlete Life Team also provided education counselling to Kean Yew when he was studying in Republic Polytechnic and when he decided to pursue badminton full-time.

With the weight of the nation's expectation on Samuel, he is slowly feeling the pressure. Social media is abuzz with scathing scrutiny of his performance. Online kerfuffle between loyal fans and naysayers fuel unnecessary speculations and judgement. That shook Samuel's morale.

If only someone could share with Samuel that years before, Kean Yew experienced the same pressures.

Earlier last month, I met Kean Yew on the sidelines of the Singapore Open. He had just exited in the second round but he was, as usual, looking cheery when I met him. After chatting with our shuttlers, I pulled Kean Yew aside. I checked in with him on his mental state and well-being, something that I have always been concerned about. I spoke to Kean Yew again last night over the phone to seek his consent for my sharing in this Chamber. Because what was apparent to me then from that conversation was that the weight of an entire nation's expectations was squarely on this young man's shoulders and he was fully aware of that. Perhaps overly so.

And I raise this today in the hope that all of us can be that little bit more sensitive and that little bit more supportive.

Athletes want to live up to fans' expectations but fans need to understand that athletes, too, are human. They, too, have good days and bad. Let us not forget that it is not all just about medals, but rather, it is about journeying with our athletes as they work through their daily struggles in realising their maximal potential.

Back to our protagonist, Samuel. He perseveres. While the pressure overwhelms him at times, Samuel is encouraged by his friends. However, not all is a bed of roses. In the gripping quarter finals against the world No 3, Samuel eventually succumbs in his first Olympic endeavour.

As Samuel marches to the back of house, holding back tears, his coach says to him, "Sport is not merely about the medals. It is about training to be the best version of yourself. You have done that. You have done yourself and Singapore proud."

These words spur Samuel on as he starts again for the next Olympic cycle – his window to perform. Training is tough but, against all odds, Samuel prevails, winning a silver medal at the following Olympics. Remembering Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan's wisdom, Samuel says in a post-match interview, "I didn't lose the gold. I won the silver."

Time flies. Samuel's journey as an athlete is ending. We also note Ms Sylvia Lim's proposal on post-retirement medical support. I thank the Member for that. To give back to the sport and community, Samuel decides to take on coaching roles within the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) to nurture and inspire the next generation of shuttlers.

Samuel's legacy will not be forgotten. As a retired athlete who makes sustained contributions to the sport and the community after retirement, he has been nominated and will likely qualify for induction into the Singapore Sport Hall of Fame.

He will join the ranks of almost 60 other athletes, including track superstar C Kunalan, bowler Remy Ong and swimmer Theresa Goh. Some of these retired athletes have, in turn, been invited to provide their views on Hall of Fame nominees. His coach, too, has been included in the Hall of Fame under the category for Sports Leaders that had been created to honour the contribution of sports administrators, coaches and scientists, amongst others.

With the Government's review of the Sports Excellence (spex) Framework, we hope that there will be more "Samuels" to come. One of these revisions was extending the spexScholarships in 2022 beyond just athletes competing in major games to our very own world indoor skydiving champion, Kyra Poh. We will also continue to facilitate and provide some access to gym facilities, sport psychologists as well as training and competition facilities for our athletes in emerging, new and niche sports.

As we continue to scale up support for our athletes, I would like to assure this House that the Government will do likewise for our current and next generation of para-athletes. Our para-athletes have been an inspiration to all of us, showing what it means to not be defined or constrained by physical limits.

One such example is para-powerlifter Nur Aini, who, at the 2017 ASEAN Para Games, was the first Singaporean woman to compete in para-powerlifting. Across several major games, Aini made steady progress but was beset by an injury following the 2022 Paralympics. This injury required surgery, but Aini remained unfazed and persevered to compete in the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Since then, Aini has continued her steady ascent, making history at the recent ASEAN Para Games, winning Singapore's first ever medals in women's para-powerlifting through her two bronze medals for the Women Up to 50 kilogrammes in the Best Lift and the Total Lift events.

We also have a team of dedicated SSI sports scientists who have been doggedly considering ways for our para-athletes to further maximise their potential.

One example is Muhammad Diroy, who, with the support of his coach and an SSI biomechanist, adopted a new individualised technique that enabled him to defend his gold medal at the ASEAN Para Games men's Shot Put event.

Aini and Diroy are just some examples out of numerous para-athletes – or as I prefer to say, athletes – who have represented Singapore. Each of these athletes empower persons with disabilities to live better through sports, exemplifying how sports can reduce the stigma and discrimination sometimes associated with disability. That is why the Government has been and will continue to invest resources in promoting disability sports.

One key thrust to achieve this target is inclusive facilities. I am glad to share that SportSG has set up eight inclusive ActiveSG gyms and are on track to make all 27 gyms inclusive by 2026.

I am also heartened that persons with disabilities' participation in sports has increased from 30% in 2015 to 54% in 2022. I assure Ms He Ting Ru that this figure cited in the Enabling Masterplan is based on Sport Singapore's National Sport Participation Survey, so they are fully aligned and accurate.

The Government will continue to better support disability sports. That is why sports are one of our focal areas under the Enabling Masterplan 2030.

That is also why we embarked on an update of the Disability Sports Master Plan (DSMP) and aim to share the results of our update next year as well as the next steps to make sports more inclusive.

Even as the Government continues to support our athletes, I urge corporates and Members of this House to partner us.

I spoke earlier about how it takes a village to raise an athlete and I hope, sincerely, that as a nation, we can continue to grow this village. I thus urge that all of us use our platforms to be cheerleaders for our athletes, whether they win or lose.

And I echo Mr Mark Chay and Ms Poh Li San who called on corporates to support our athletes and I would like to suggest two ways for corporates to help.

First, to support our athletes financially. This can be through donations to the One Team Singapore Fund (OTSF), which will support our athletes in enhancing their training environments and in increasing competition opportunities.

One such beneficiary was the Singapore Floorball Association, who had used OTSF to subsidise their overseas training and competition costs. This exposed our floorball athletes to a higher level of international competitive floorball, where our Singapore Under-19 men's team managed to participate in the 12th men's Under-19 World Floorball Championships in April 2023.

Second, by joining the spexBusiness network to help support current and former TeamSG athletes in pursuing meaningful careers while balancing their sporting commitments.

Mdm Deputy Speaker, at this point, I want to thank all Members for their suggestions. As we have heard from Samuel's story, many of these have already been implemented and those not implemented may or may not be practical or does not really account for our context. But I just want to assure Members of this House that we are always improving the system and we welcome all Singaporeans to support us in this journey because this journey in creating sporting success needs partnerships.

At this juncture, I would also like to take some time to respond to some of the points that had been raised.

On football, Goal 2034 is a project aimed at galvanising improvements to our football standards at all levels and paying particular attention to the base. This requires a whole-of-society approach for all of us to get behind these efforts.

We have outlined this approach on several occasions. Do we want to qualify for the World Cup? Every country serious about sports will want to aspire towards that. But it is more important for us to be focused on building sustainable, long-lasting foundations to anchor our sporting aspirations, including football.

For the recent football friendlies against Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, Kallang Alive Sports Management Company Limited had waived the venue rental fees for the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) in addition to further subsidising third-party pass-through costs incurred by FAS.

On the Sports Hub, we have made various statements on the termination sum and I will not go into details on this. This is a Motion on sports not on Public-Private Partnership (PPP), and let us focus on that. In any case, as Member Assoc Prof Jamus Lim has acknowledged, Minister Edwin Tong has already covered the takeover of Sports Hub in detail during his Ministerial Statement last year. In gist, we went for a PPP due to the international private sector expertise we could tap on and the lack of upfront capital costs from the Government. And when our partners fell short, we made a decision to terminate and we got a fair deal. This was also laid out in February this year.

It has only been a short period of time since we took back the Sports Hub in December last year. Many more community events have taken place. For the first time, we were able to organise large-scale community festivals at the Sports Hub, attracting more than 50,000 participants in one shot.

We have also built a healthy pipeline of world-class, not just entertainment, but also sporting events. So, besides concerts, we have marquee sports events taking place or have not already taken place in the Sports Hub, such as Rugby Sevens, Singapore Smash, Singapore Badminton Open, the FIBA Intercontinental Cup and the FIBA 3X3 Asia Cup.

On emerging sports, we need to make optimal use of our limited resources. Our priority and, hence, our investment, is channelled to developing a sustained pipeline of athletes to represent our nation at elite competitions, including major games. We are, nevertheless, looking at more ways to support athletes in new, emerging and niche sports.

On broadcast, the broadcasting of sports competitions is a useful platform to promote the efforts of Team Singapore athletes and drive greater support for Team Singapore. We agree with that. Mediacorp broadcasts a range of sporting competitions and events on its free-to-air channels and meWATCH. But decisions related to sports broadcasting really depends on several considerations, including things like time zone, media rights, audience interest. So, I hope the Member who raised these points can appreciate these complexities.

Madam, at this point, I reiterate my support for the amendments raised by Mr Darryl David. When I started, I spoke about regular and consistent review and evaluation being part and parcel of our HPS ecosystem, regardless of this or any other Motion.

Our goals in sport will not solely be our medal count. Rather, ingredients that will allow us to build a successful HPS ecosystem. And that includes, one, broad access to sports through community programmes and infrastructure, regardless of socio-economic status. This is why we have the SportCares programmes and have topped up $100 worth of ActiveSG credits for all Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents aged four to 12. We will also continue to enhance access to sporting facilities through our Sports Facilities Master Plan.

Second, we will continue building a vibrant sporting culture. That is why we took back the Sports Hub because we believe in its potential to drive community sports. In 2023, school events returned to the Sports Hub, including 42 National School Games Finals. We also aim to host more world-class sporting events, having added FIBA Intercontinental Cup – that will come to Asia for the very first time – to the already burgeoning list of marquee events, including the Singapore Smash and Rugby Sevens that I had mentioned earlier.

Third, supporting our athletes and para-athletes to maximise their potential by providing them with financial support as well as non-financial support, including coaches, psychologists, scientists, amongst others.

But as a nation, all of us must rally behind our athletes, regardless of whether they win or lose. Why we continue to invest in sport is because of its ability to rally communities together and foster national pride and cohesion. We must not lose sight of this.

Take, for example, the Suzuki Cup semi-finals two years back on Boxing Day where our Lions lost the match to Indonesia while three men down, but won the hearts of all Singaporeans. The immense pride that we all felt, that I felt, when Majulah Singapura filled the National Stadium that evening. That is the power of sports.

But it is only possible if we come together as a nation to support our athletes, regardless of outcome.

No doubt, Singapore is a little red dot. But we have time and again shown the world what we are made of. Madam, with that, I stand in full support of the amended Motion raised by Mr Darryl David. [Applause.]

I would like to thank all the long-suffering Members of this House who, like our die-hard and similarly long-suffering football fans, have stayed till this bitter end. I had originally thought we would end by 6.00 pm which perhaps points to my own naive optimism and, contrary to the text of the Motion, in my inability to set achievable goals.

As the many varied and charged speeches from both sides of the House as well as among our NMP ranks, delivered over the course of this Motion, attest, sport actually has a remarkable ability to excite, inspire and unite. It also has an incredible ability to foster euphoria as well as despair. I recall how I remained on cloud nine a good week after the Golden State Warriors, my favourite basketball team, won the National Basketball Association (NBA) finals last year. But I also felt an annoying sense of loss when, back in May, I watched my alma mater's "A" division rugby team lose in the final minutes to an arch rival. Others will undoubtedly share how they felt after the Young Lions' 7-0 thrashing by Malaysia that same month.

And this notion that sports can and do contribute to national well-being is not just a vague hypothesis. Research has shown that there are strong associations between sporting participation and measures of economic success, such as per capita incomes and economic freedoms.

Hosting sporting events and national athletic success are, likewise, associated with improved life satisfaction. And as He Ting Ru has pointed out in her speech, there are clear biological pathways for why sports contribute not just to physical but also mental well-being. The sentiment was also echoed by Sylvia Lim and Xie Yao Quan.

Let me, first, begin with a quick response to Senior Parliamentary Secretary Eric Chua. The Senior Parliamentary Secretary went through a slate of examples for how the Government's sports programmes have helped individual athletes who, in turn, have gone on to succeed in these sporting endeavours. We have, to be clear, zero quarrel with these and, indeed, congratulate both the sportsmen and women who have won sporting medals and, often, with impressive academic results to boot.

We do not even doubt that Government support has been instrumental in their success. But once again, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and the question we ask is: what of those who did not find success?

The examples that he cites often smell of selection bias and we are left to wonder what could have happened. For our level of income and what we spend, why is it that we underperform as a nation?

I should clarify at this point perhaps that the source of the charts that I used and circulated was, well, myself, two hours on a Sunday afternoon, based on publicly available data on FIFA rankings, Olympic medals and GDP per capita. And of course, I am well aware that sports performance depends on much more than income. I am happy to share the eight or so references I have from peer reviewed journals that control for many more factors.

But I came to the conclusion that they have all come to the same conclusion as I have.

I shared the charts because I thought that they conveyed the point much more cleanly and much more clearly than the suite of references would. As a political officeholder, I am sure Senior Parliamentary Secretary Chua would appreciate the value of a message simply conveyed.

So, what are we left to ask? Well, even as we rightly celebrate the success, let us not be afraid to accept the reality of how, unlike our successes in other national endeavours, from top airline and airport to among the top Asian universities to even some of the highest per capita incomes in the world, we simply fall short when it comes to sport. Singaporeans have been starved of the opportunity to cheer their national athletes even more than they have been able to.

So, to be clear, we are not disparaging our current athletes or when they inevitably stumble now and then and do not medal. We rightly celebrate them. That is right in the Motion, not just for medals, but their accomplishments, which include even qualifying for the games in the first place. But the Motion is asking – indeed, pleading – on behalf of all Singaporeans, for these successful athletes we have yet to see.

Member Wan Rizal explained that sporting success is also manifold and felt that the text of the Motion did not sufficiently capture this aspect. I am afraid I have to disagree with this one. Indeed, both Ms Sylvia Lim and Ms He Ting Ru spoke about the aspects of diversity, inclusion and mental health – matters cited also by Dr Wan Rizal himself but also Mr Darryl David.

Hence, we fully agree with the need to focus on much more than just sporting achievements by national athletes but also by the rest of us, albeit, we also recognise the inspirational value of marquee events.

NMP Mark Chay critiqued an excessive focus on income as a determiner of sporting success and offered what amounted to an apology for our relative underperformance. He said that team sports take time. As a national sportsman and a coach, he would be much more familiar with individual sporting challenges. But I cannot help but wonder if he would be as comfortable if those under his charge not only failed to perform after receiving significant financial support but actually regressed in terms of their sporting performance.

A minor clarification which was a point first raised by Ms Poh Li San but now reiterated by Senior Parliamentary Secretary Chua, which I offered earlier. To reiterate, I am, indeed, aware that we were ranked sixth in the recent SEA Games, but this is because medal types are counted differently and having secured 51 golds to Malaysia's 34, we ranked one above the latter, but they had 175 medals to our 157. Hence, the sentence in my speech referred specifically to the total medal count.

In any case, not to nitpick on such matters of rhetoric, I will go on and speak about areas of improvement.

Both Mr Faisal Manap and Mr Dennis Tan suggested specific improvements to our Youth Development programmes for football, such as ensuring that the coaching and mentoring programmes are on track, not least by making sure that they have a training schedule that meets more than once every half a year and devoting more resources towards lower levels in our grassroots soccer leagues.

In the same spirit, Mr Dennis Tan also suggested barriers to recreational football in our heartlands could be lowered, such as additional funding for sheltered futsal courts, either in open spaces or atop multi-storey car parks.

Melvin Yong also spoke about football and especially stressed the need for dedicated infrastructure and facilities.

Improving the pathways through sporting success for the young was a point made also by Mr Gerald Giam, Ms Poh Li San, Mr Melvin Yong and Dr Wan Rizal. Ms Poh cited the example of table tennis – one of the sports where Singapore has indeed done relatively well – to argue that private sector efforts are just as important as a complement to the public sector. Mr Melvin Yong expounded on the range of sporting activities for the youths, especially the Pesta Sukan, where fresh talent may be identified and participation is encouraged. Mr Gerald Giam, in contrast, suggested expanding the Singapore Sports School which, in turn, would feed into a collegiate sports career. He also stressed the importance of flexibility for student athletes – a theme that was also made by Mr Leong Mun Wai who spoke about how our young men serve their NS obligations could stand to be relaxed for our top-tier sporting talent.

Mr Gerald Giam also pointed out to how media coverage for local sports could stand to be expanded, making these free-to-air or livestream online. Final matches, featuring Singaporeans especially, should be broadcast live for all of us to cheer our athletes along.

Mr Leon Perera spoke up for lesser-known sports. His concrete suggestions include strengthening funding and support for these sports, a sentiment that was also echoed by Dr Wan Rizal. Mr Perera also spoke of providing state financial support much earlier in the game for our budding athletes, especially to attend tournaments and ensuring sufficient talent in the sports business management field, are all practical ones for beefing up our sports ecosystem.

Ms Sylvia Lim, Ms He Ting Ru and Mr Mark Chay offered ideas for how we can make sport more attractive outside of top-level sporting arenas. Ms Lim made the case for medical subsidies for national athletes that extend beyond just the time that they are actively representing Singapore, while Ms He stressed that we need to improve inclusivity, especially in our ActiveSG gyms, and Mr Chay stressed the importance of giving regular folks a reason for them to remain active.

Inclusion also extends to our professional athletes. Both the Leader of the Opposition Mr Pritam Singh and Mr Leong Mun Wai made appeals that clear and objective criteria be applied to the selection of our national athletes, with both acknowledging that while good conduct is undeniably important, sportsmen and women should not be held to unreasonable standards of behaviour that are not always extended to other public figures. This helps us avoid unnecessary "own goals" with our already scarce local sporting talent.

On my part, I pointed out that we can use the Sports Hub, the crowning glory of our national sporting scene, as a catalyst and platform to improve community engagement in sports and also called for a re-examination of the efficacy of our current national sport spending.

With regard to achievable goals, let me now attempt to sum up some of the suggestions that have been made by Members of this House over the past hours.

My friend, Mr Faisal Manap, has already articulated: we do not have any definitive answers. And of course, these goals should eventually be established in consultation with all the stakeholders involved – the athletes and coaches, the NSAs and, of course, Singapore sports fans at large. It is also unrealistic since we do not have a complete picture of aggregate financial resources that could be credibly committed to these goals.

Still, it is fair to note, as I did in my opening speech, that we do not only appear to systematically under-invest in sport, but we also appear to underachieve relative to how much we put in. Hence, the issue is how much more effective can we be with the monies we devote currently already to sport?

For football, our almost national sport, Mr Faisal Manap did point out that the medium-term goal of qualifying for the AFC Asian Cup by 2026 was not just aspirational, but potentially realisable. We could also chase the SEA Games football goal in a decade. These strike us as eminently reasonable, especially since Singapore had in 1974 won the Southeast Asian Peninsula Games – the predecessor to the SEA Games – and secured silver over multiple years in the SEA Games football tournaments between 1983 and 1989 while also taking a bronze as recently as 2013.

Mr Melvin Yong also suggested that we can benchmark ourselves against successful football nations as a metric for our achievement.

Lesser-known sports can also contribute strongly to our national sporting goals. Some of these sports have been immensely successful and we can build off their current global rankings and set targets to raise them by a notch or two. At the very least, it seems appropriate, as Leon Perera has argued, to extend National Sports Association coverage to all sports, including dodgeball and powerlifting, just as they have belatedly done with tchoukball, which I note only occurred this year and does not appear to have been updated on the ActiveSG website, which was the source for our citation. And in any case, it occurred well after the men and women's teams had already found global success.

Ms Poh Li San pointed to how our existing Government awards, such as the major sports award – the games award programme – play an important role in helping make sports a viable career.

I agree, but I would go further. Perhaps we should look to such programmes as only necessary up till through to the medium run and we will hopefully wind these down in the long run, looking instead to a growing local sporting audience to ensure a self-sustaining domestic market for professional athletes to function – much like many other nations, without government grants, relying instead on recognition and sponsorship.

Ms He Ting Ru also provided a clear goal for improving the infrastructure catering to simpler sporting activities like walking and running – our country's most popular sport by far, incidentally, for the non-professional sportsmen and women – to ensure that our "cycle and walk" pass or meet the Government's own design guide specifications islandwide. She also stressed the need to improve the participation rate in sports among the disabled and others with special needs.

Given what I have shared above, it will be of little surprise that we are unable to accept the proposed amendments made by Member Darryl David in full.

We find the first amendment uncontentious – after all, sporting celebrations or any celebration of accomplishments should always recognise that it stands on the shoulders of those who have come before. We thank Mr Darryl David for the suggested amendments.

We find it somewhat more difficult to accept the second amendment although we would be willing to stand corrected. While we accept that the Government has intimated that they have performed a number of reviews and continue to monitor performance, we have not seen the concrete fruits of such thorough evaluations for the sporting ecosystem as a whole. So, unless the Government will commit to a future date where they will release a report or review documenting this effort – I understand that the report for football will be coming soon, but not for the system as a whole – we will be unable to support this particular amendment.

We are also unable to support the third amendment. This wiggles, in our view, out of one of the most important fundamentals for sporting performance – appropriately defining success. It is important to have clarity on what our goals are and ideally set up, not only eventual, but also intermediate targets, that we can credibly achieve. Accepting the amendment also robs us of being able to meet the sort of mass participation goals that we alluded to that are imminently achievable.

We also doubt that the Government would be comfortable with such ambiguity for other endeavours as a nation, such as where we want our universities to be, or the profitability of our state-owned enterprises.

It will be remiss if I did not close by reiterating my thanks to all our athletes and para-athletes for representing our country. I know that all of them had to make enormous sacrifices, mentally, emotionally and physically, to be able to compete on the international stage. You have all carried our flag and done so proudly, and we, in turn, have lived vicariously through you and are immensely proud of all that you have achieved.

But these thanks extend as well to those who have contributed in ways big and small to our local sporting ecosystem: our parents and coaches who are sometimes one and the same; the die-hard and long-suffering supporters and fans; sports announcers, commentators and reporters – they keep us attuned and excited; the administrators and backend support staff for our sporting infrastructure; and also, even down to the maintenance folks who keep it all going: the groundskeepers, stadium cleaners, floodlight technicians, media operators. Just like how it takes a village to nurture a world-class athlete, in the words of Senior Parliamentary Secretary Chua, it seemingly takes one to keep our current sports system rolling.

Some may ask why the Workers' Party has chosen to speak on this seemingly non-critical issue of sports at this period of time when there appears to be more pressing matters on the horizon – pressures in the cost of living, unaffordable house and car prices and softening economy.

To be clear, we have consistently raised issues of concern and participated in extended debates in this House in these very areas and will continue to do so. But we are fooling ourselves if we think for a moment that jobs and businesses and the economy constitute the entirety of life.

We work so that we may live, not the other way around. In this sense, sport captures, in the most general way, both the trade-offs we routinely make in leisure versus labour, that makes life ultimately worth living, while also embodying the measure of our aspirations as a people, a society and a country. Or in the words of Xie Yao Quan: it reflects our values.

If there is one dimension in life where rankings indisputably matter, it is in sports league tables. Ultimately, sport is about rowing together, in unison, towards a common goal – the same as nation-building.

Singaporeans have shown by their actions that they, indeed, care about sport. The National Sport Participation Survey (NSPS) reveals that exercise and sporting activities reach an all-time high in 2022. Perhaps the pandemic gives Singaporeans a taste of the importance of achieving genuine work-life balance. Perhaps, it was a reminder of our mortality and what we need to do to ensure that we remain fit and healthy. Or perhaps, it allowed us to reflect on the true value of sports in Singapore. [Applause.]