Celebrating Olympic and Paralympic Achievements - Together

Thank you, Sir, and I would like to thank all our colleagues, Members in this House, for being united in your support for this Motion and also support for sports in Singapore as we look at the next bound and steps that we can take collectively together to get us to the next bound.

I thank the various Members for their impassioned speeches.

1. Mr Yip Hon Weng, Ms Poh Li San, for your thoughtful sporting suggestions.

2. Assoc Prof Razwana, for reminding us that sports should always be fun.

3. Ms Jean See, Ms Hazel Poa, for your support.

4. Assoc Prof Jamus Lim and Mr Sitoh Yih Pin, for your impassioned interventions.

5. And of course, Ms Denise Phua, who was not just passionate in her speech, but she is so passionate that she came in Team Singapore colours as well today.

These are all great suggestions which my team and I will take back and we will consider thoughtfully and take on board in the course of looking at the proposals and policies that we will have to advance sports. I thought I would take up a response on two points which most of the Members have spoken about.

And the first is on our disability sports landscape. Ms Denise Phua and Mr Keith Chua, in particular, noted that it is important to encourage children in our SPED schools to take up sports from a young age. We agree.

Mr Ong Hua Han also suggested adopting a more structured approach to encouraging children with disabilities in mainstream schools to do sports. We agree.

In addition, I think Mr Ong Hua Han also mentioned that we have to raise awareness and understanding.

1. And I can see why, because our children do not have, from a young age, a bias.

2. And I think what is needed for them is to gain greater understanding and empathy, and also being able to be equipped with how to deal with a situation when they see a person with disability – how do you interact, how do you make the first move, how do you break the ice and how do you come together and socialise and form a community.

3. And I think these are important steps that we will take, and we believe that the platform of sports provides us a great way in which we can do this.

Mr Keith Chua also noted that we can do more for persons with disabilities in the community. To this end, along with helping children, MOE has introduced a new SPED Physical Education (PE) teaching and learning syllabus earlier this month.

1. It focuses on preparing SPED students for good health and life outcomes through lifelong sports participation.

2. This early intervention can ensure that these children can access sports from a young age, cultivate a good habit and cultivate a culture for sustained and lifelong sports participation.

Indeed, over the years, we have made good progress, introducing a range of disability sport programmes and initiatives.

1. These have reached out to close to 20,000 persons with disabilities to date.

2. They include the Learn to Play programme, the annual Play Inclusive campaign that I spoke about, the Inclusive Sport Festival, which has itself also been integrated into the mainstream GetActive! Singapore.

3. It is no longer just about normal ability sports, but also special ability sports within our mainstream programmes like GetActive! Singapore, which is a very popular programme.

4. We have also launched the Para Sport Academy. This was done in March 2022. And so far, there have been more than 400 participants across 10 sports today.

And as I said earlier, as we look forward towards the launch of the DSMP, we will make further announcements on what else we are doing to enhance the disability sport landscape.

The second point I would like to respond to would be the incentive awards. Let me explain this with some context so that Members can understand.

First of all, as Ms Usha Chandradas pointed out, this is put up by non-government entities. It is decided by them. They decide on the funding, the appropriate level, the structures and the terms on which this is done.

Between the Olympic and the Paralympic structure, there are differences. But these differences do not mean one is necessarily better than the other. Let me explain.

1. In the Olympics, for example, the only gold that is rewarded under the incentive programme is the first gold for $1 million.

2. Under the Paralympic programme, it is $500,000 for each gold, but it goes up to three golds. So, it is different, not necessarily comparable in the same way.

3. These are also decided by the private sector on a range of different considerations. They have to think in terms of whether this is sustainable, is this an incentive programme that drives the right behaviour, and how long-term can this be?

4. Bearing in mind, for example, if you compare the Paralympics with the Olympics, just in swimming alone, there are 141 Paralympic swimming events for which medals are awarded, as opposed to 37 in the Olympics.

5. So, when the private sector, as well as Tote Board, looks at this, these are amongst the considerations that they have in mind.

Assoc Prof Jamus Lim also spoke about equalising, and I think several other Members as well. With reference to some data, I think there was an article cited by Ms Usha Chandradas. Assoc Prof Jamus Lim spoke about the experience in Canada.

1. Let us not also forget that even as we look at trying to find parity, let us not forget where we start and where we are today in Singapore.

2. Like Ms Chandradas says, Singapore is amongst the highest, if not the highest, in terms of the incentive scheme amounts in absolute terms.

3. Assoc Prof Lim spoke about Canada but I think Assoc Prof Lim would know that Canada's incentive for a Paralympic gold is $20,000. We are at $500,000. I am not sure whether Canada looks at the second or third golds as we do.

4. Other countries mentioned, like in Japan by Ms Chandradas, their gold is at $20,000; Korea is at $50,000; France is at $100,000; and Australia is at $15,000.

5. So, let us not also miss the wood for the trees. We have been pushing the amounts up over the years, and I can understand and appreciate entirely why Members have said let us find parity. Because there is, in fact, no difference between the way in which our para athletes train, put effort, make sacrifices as well as our Olympic athletes. But let us not also lose sight of the amounts in absolute terms and how much we support our athletes.

I also want to explain why we have taken the position that we have left the incentive schemes to the private sector and to the Tote Board to handle.

1. These awards, based on each Major Games, they are set up and, as you know, the Games are cyclical. At each Games, like the Olympics, there might be a gold medallist or there might not be a gold medallist.

2. But the amounts that are committed will have to be put aside and have to be provided for, and you cannot use them, and because you cannot use them, you cannot deploy the funds elsewhere.

3. In contrast, what the Government does is we look at a year-on-year, long-term master plan, like the DSMP, as an example.

4. We cater for infrastructure upgrades and development. We look at facilities and building up the academies, like ActiveSG Academies, the Para Sport Academy, the coaches, the specialist physiotherapists that we employ for para-athletes, sports science, the programmes that I spoke about earlier in my opening speech, the various bursaries that we put together, like in SportCares bursaries, as I spoke about in my opening speech as well, to support the lower-income, and, of course, the spex programme, amongst others.

5. These are all spendings that are committed every year and that are spent to improve the infrastructure and landscape for both para- and disability sports as well as able-bodied sports.

This is an investment that the Government is committed to.

1. It is not if you win an award, not whether; but it is a commitment that we make. If you put aside sums and think about whether or not I need to provide for "x" number of gold medals each cycle, these are sums that will not be able to be deployed.

2. So, we look at it differently. We decide that we want to invest these amounts, spend them, make a commitment and ensure that we have efficiency for the spend that we make.

3. It is an assured amount every year, year on year, on a long-term masterplan.

4. And more importantly, we also take the approach that when you have an incentive programme, it is good, and we applaud the various supporters and corporates who come forward to help us in this effort.

But it is also rewarding people who are more or less at the end of the journey winning a gold medal.

1. It does not directly go towards helping those in development, which is what we want to do with a broader spend, so that we can reach and target a broader base mass appeal and developing a pipeline so that more athletes, para as well as able-bodied athletes, can reach the apex of their sport and reach their aspiration.

2. That is the thinking that we have in the Government on why we leave the private sector and Tote Board to deal with the incentives while we make commitments here and now and in the long-term on facilities that overall lift the base of sports entirely. So, I hope that clarifies the position on the incentive schemes.

Finally, as I conclude, Mr Speaker, Sir, the programmes that we have spoken about, that I have outlined in my opening speech, they show us that there is a very clear commitment towards a comprehensive plan that is bold, ambitious and, in some cases, also unprecedented, in the context of Home of Team Singapore.

These plans, we believe, will help us lift the entire base altogether. We will find a new baseline, and, in order to do this, we want to permanently shift the baseline so that we are no longer looking at vagaries or depending on each year, whether there are certain sports that may be in Major Games or otherwise, performances may then vary.

1. We want to permanently shift the baseline upwards.

2. My colleagues and I at MCCY are convinced that the best years of sports lie ahead of us.

I thank everyone for supporting this Motion today, for believing in our athletes and, in particular, I thank all our athletes for allowing us to believe, through you, that dreams can come true.

Mr Ong Hua Han, in his speech earlier, spoke about how we have not even heard about kitefoiling until some months ago, before the Olympics.

Most of you know that I look after a constituency at Marine Parade. One day, when I was there a couple of months ago, after the Olympics, I saw a young boy. He tied a string to a plastic bag and he was running up and down the beach with the plastic bag.

1. And I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I am kitefoiling."

2. So, it has that power to engender, to inspire and to break new ground. And I think that is the power of sports.

It is something that the medium of sports is uniquely positioned to give us and we thank our athletes and all of the supporters, the many stakeholders in this room, in this Chamber today – family, friends, officials, coaches – everyone in the village or town that I spoke about.

1. We thank all of you very much for being here, for being part of this journey and we look forward to working with you even more, even further, as we take Singapore sports further forward.

Thank you very much, Sir.