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Tag: sports

  • Singapore Athletes’ Brutally Honest Reactions To $600 Annual Grant

    Singapore Athletes’ Brutally Honest Reactions To $600 Annual Grant

    Exactly a week ago, The Online Citizen ran a story after a Facebook post by Jose Raymond about government agency Sport Singapore’s current funding policy for national athletes.

    In the Facebook post and subsequent story, it was revealed how Singapore national athletes were receiving a meagre $600 a year, or an average of $50 a month in training assistance grants from the government.

    The grants are disbursed to the athletes twice a year, or $300 each time.

    The post by Mr Raymond, who is a Vice-Chairman of the Chiam See Tong Sports Foundation and Vice-President (Partnerships) of the Singapore Swimming Association, has since been shared more than 120 times as at 30 June, including both former and current athletes.

    Said national sprinter Calvin Kang, one of those representing Singapore at the upcoming SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur: “The harsh reality of sports in Singapore.”

    National squash player Vivian Rhamanan, a gold medalist at the last SEA Games in Singapore in the jumbo doubles, said: “I’m one of the fortunate athletes to get funding by Singapore Sports Institute. Currently carded as L4, n get $600 annually from this system.”

    Added former national sprinter Izwan Firdaus, a silver medalist from the 2009 SEA Games in Laos: “I have to beg my parents for a new training shoe each time my shoe broke.”

     

    Sharing how athletes were told that they should run for their passion and not for the passion, Izwan said that he could not live with the way the athletes were being funded and decided to choose to focus on his rice bowl instead.

    Former national swimmer and Olympian May Ooi, who is now a mixed martial arts fighter chimed in and added that “appropriate allocation of resources for deserving athletes should be a priority.”

    Responses by other athletes as follows:

    Government agency Sport Singapore has not responded to the story by TOC, or the Facebook post by Mr Raymond as yet.

    When contacted, Mr Raymond said: “The frank and unedited responses by the athletes is loud and clear. It makes for painful reading but it is a harsh reality. The athletes must always be at the heart of whatever we do in sports administration.”

     

    Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

  • Sports Seen As Unworthy Investment By Singapore Government?

    Sports Seen As Unworthy Investment By Singapore Government?

    What does this mean for local sports?

    I’m not sure how big of a role did SSA play towards his achievement but I bet the govt didnt do as much either.

    If that’s true, the message I’m getting is, “We celebrate victories but you have to put in the effort yourself and raise your own funding.”

    If the excuse is that people should be willing to sacrifice a lot to do what they love, clearly athlete development is not something that S’pore prioritises on investing in.

    ‪#‎setakattumpangbahagia‬

     

    Source: Muhammad Fahmi Hussaini

  • Nicholas Lee: PAP Deserve Credit For Almost Sabotaging Joseph Schooling, Singaporeans Need To Reflect

    Nicholas Lee: PAP Deserve Credit For Almost Sabotaging Joseph Schooling, Singaporeans Need To Reflect

    Long Re-post, but enlightening:

    Some Facts about Joseph Schooling, you decide for yourself

    Joseph Issac Schooling, born in SIngapore. Father is a 3rd generation Singaporean of mixed English and Eurasian Portuguese heritage. Mother is a Malaysian Chinese who is a singapore PR. She has been living in Singapore for decades but has not taken up Singapore citizenship.

    Went to ACS Primary school. After PSLE, his swimming potential was identified by the parents, and they decided to send him to the Jacksonville, Florida to attend the Bolles School, which is a school specializing in training atheletes, in particular swimmers. Bolles has had a swimmer alumnus or student competing in every Olympic games since 1972. Their swimming program was set up by Gregg Troy who was the US Olympic Swim coach for the 2012 Olympic games. Imagine your secondary school swimming coach is a former Olympic swimmer and coached Michael Phelps in the 2012 Olympics!! What a powerhouse your school would be in the pool. because he is an international student, Bolles has a boarding program for its foreign students. The cost of one year of school fees and room and board is USD $47,000. Guess how much the PAP and SNOC contributed to this amount. Zero would be a fair guess.

    After he graduated from Bolles, he was offered a swim scholarship at University of Texas, one of the top 5 swimming programs amongst US universities. The Head Coach for the U of T swimming program is Eddie Reese, former head coach of the US Olympics swim team in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. If you know anything about the swim program, you know that nothing is left to chance. Professional full-time dieticians, sports psychologist, strenght and conditioning coaches, multi million weight rooms, etc are all part and parcel of what atheletes get when they go there. But even on a scholarship, its not cheap, with frequent travel to Singapore to compete in the SEA and Asian games and other social visits. Also, out of pocket costs and other costs in USD is also not cheap.

    It was at this point when the big hooha between Schooling’s mother MINDEF took place over his deferment. After a protracted and public fight, where she used the news media to put pressure on the PAP, you know who won the fight. Unfortunately, in earlier times, without the aid of modern day internet and social media, many other atheletes were lost to NS and a short sighted govt. policy. The race driver Andrew Tang is an example of a failed request for NS deferment. Ang Peng Siong in an earlier time was another case.

    So to sum it up……………..
    The Schoolings and not the govt paid huge money to send Joseph to Bolles for his swim coaching and studies
    The Schoolings and not the govt got the U of T scholarship for Joseph, even though it seems the PAP is giving full scholarships to every tom dick and harry FT
    The PAP wanted to sabotage the whole thing by making him do NS at such a critical junction in his swim career, and it would have happened if not for his mother’s intervention.

    The other Republic swimmer Quah Zheng Wen was not so fortunate that his family can send him to Bolles and hence is stuck with no name national coach carlos lopez, a bronze medallist in the Olympics and with the pathetic facilities in singapore. If Quah had the same opportunities, maybe we have 2 medals or more.

    U decide how much credit the PAP should get. Then see how many of these assholes jump on the bandwagon until it breaks.

    Some more Facts about Joseph Schooling, you decide for yourself Part 2

    “I think it has to be said that as a nation, a people, a country, a govt., and as individuals, we did almost nothing to help Schooling get to the gold medal. We did not finance him, did not support him, the PAP chose not to groom and encourage this guy. Very little of our money went to training him, and providing him the necessary support, compared to the millions we lavish on 3rd class ungrateful atheletes from China and elsewhere. Not only did we not support him, we almost killed his career by making him do NS. When I say we, I mean the 70% of the morons that supported and elected the PAP. If his mother May did not fight MINDEF to get his deferment, he might still be in the SAF now doing NS. There was no mass petition from singaporeans calling for his deferment. there was no mass calling of the MPs to support him. There was no media support for him, and certainly no support from the Singapore National Olympics Committeefor his deferment. Instead, 2 angmos (one was his swim coach in U of T, Gregg Troy) and the other a technical director, Bill Swetenham of SSC, wrote in their support to ask for his deferment. Not one PAP asshole or Notable sinkie stood up for this boy.

    But now that he won the Gold, everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and be proud of him. I say that you don’t have that right. Singaporeans have not earned the right to claim the limelight with him. Where were they when he needed them? Sinkies are really pathetic hypocrites. Although I am born and raised in singapore, I am ashamed of our treatment of this boy, and I certainly cannot rejoice without a hint of embarassment that we as a people almost kill this great moment.”

     

    Source: Nicholas Lee

  • Residents Should Be Tolerant Of Activities At Home United Youth Academy, Help Nurture Sporting Talents

    Residents Should Be Tolerant Of Activities At Home United Youth Academy, Help Nurture Sporting Talents

    Earlier we read how void decks were restructured to make it impossible for our kids to play anything there, especially football.

    Why?

    Because residents complained.

    Now…even when our kids play in the field, complains flood the authorities.

    We are not sure if the small minority who keep on complaining represents the silent majority, or simply the small minority is bullying the sports and the relevant authorities….

    Whatever the case, it’s sad to see how some Singaporeans have become less communal, less tolerant and more individualistic.

    The kind of intolerance demonstrated in this particular instance is simply intolerable if we want to see a more vibrant sporting scene in Singapore, or simply if we want to see our kids have a good weekend at sports or simply for them to have a good, clean and healthy fun with neighbours and friends.

    Even though the Home United Youth Academy is a business entity, it is running a cause for the national sports interests – football. If this level of intolerance and bullying continues, we can forget about seeing the return of the likes of Fandi Ahmad and his generation of foodballers in Singapore. It’s as good as dead.

     

    Source: Mohd Khair

  • 4x100M Swim Relay Becomes First Singapore Team To Reach World Swimming Final

    4x100M Swim Relay Becomes First Singapore Team To Reach World Swimming Final

    Francis Fong, Samuel Khoo, Dylan Koo and Darren Lim made history last night when they became the first Singapore relay quartet to reach a world swimming final.

    They clocked a new national Under-17 record of 3min 47.36sec to finish ninth in the 4x100m individual medley heats of the Fina World Junior Swimming Championships yesterday morning and were put on the reserve list.

    They were told of their place in the final yesterday afternoon, when Poland failed to report on time.

    Dylan, 16, said: “When we heard the news at the Aquatic Centre, we immediately readied ourselves and we were quite pumped up because we knew that we had a second shot at the Under-17 record.”

    They were close, but missed out on another new mark with their 3:47.40 swim to finish eighth in the final.

    Also, three other national Under-17 relay records were rewritten during the six-day meet – the women’s 4x100m medley, the men’s 4x200m free and the men’s 4x100m free.

    National assistant coach Gary Tan said relays were the focus of the swimmers’ training when the 22-member squad were named in July.

    He said: “Through relays, we started to see the kids coming together to bond as a team. The times also started to drop, both individually and as a team.

    “This is the first time that we have a swim team in a final at a major (world) meet, whether at junior or senior level, and I hope it translates into the senior level.”

    The former national swimmer also acknowledged that the relay focus is to build up Singapore’s relay capabilities to qualify for future Olympics, especially Tokyo 2020.

    Competing among giants – many swimmers at the Fina World Juniors are taller than the Singaporeans – has given the local athletes more confidence.

    Francis, 15, said: “For many of us it was our first international meet… many of us came into this meet fearful because a lot of the foreign swimmers were taller and stronger than us.

    “But, through this meet, we’ve learned that in order to do our best, we have to overcome our fears and that, in itself, was a challenge to become better swimmers.”

    Singapore Swimming Association president Lee Kok Choy was happy with how the competition had turned out, as well as the performances of the local swimmers.

    He said: “It is still early stages of their development, but I think they are on track.”

     

    Source: www.tnp.sg