Harnessing the potential and pursuit of sporting excellence for our athletes

Speech by Mr Edwin Tong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth & Second Minister for Law, at the Singapore Sport & Performance and Sport & Exercise Medicine (SSP x SSEM) Conference 2024 on 6 November 2024

Sport Coaches and Professionals,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. A very good morning to all of you. 
1. I also want to give a big shoutout to all those who join us from overseas – welcome to Singapore!
2. It is wonderful to see so many familiar faces from our sporting community here today.
2. This morning, we are speaking on a very important topic. 
1. Those of you who know, right at this spot here, some months ago, I announced Singapore’s most ambitious sporting plan for some time now – to turn Kallang into a venue, that represents a space where we can have first-class training and a solid daily training environment.
3. Today, I want to turn the spotlight on a different group of individuals, who in my view, are highly important and hugely critical to the success that we want to see on the sporting arena.
1. Our coaches, sport scientists, administrators, and our sport doctors – essentially, the team behind the team.
2. They are the people, who form the bedrock of our athletes’ success, often working silently and tirelessly, something which I have seen in all Major Games I have attended.
4. This SSP x SSEM conference, jointly hosted for the first time by the Singapore Sport Institute (SSI), National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI), and SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute, is meant to celebrate and recognise the hard work that goes on behind-the-scenes that often goes unnoticed when we see the Games take place on television.
5. But the work that all of you do is core in achieving our next bound of success, in  matching our ambitions and being able to drive our athletes, to lift our entire ecosystem of Singapore.
1. It is through your expertise and efforts that we can nurture our current and next generation of our athletes into world-class podium athletes, and propel Singapore to make breakthrough performances in the international sporting arena. Not just a transient or temporal breakthrough, but one that is consistent and regular.
6. I am very happy to be here at this conference, where there will be a dynamic and generous exchange of knowledge, insights, reflections and best practices of your individual journeys.
1. We come from different sports, backgrounds and carry with us different perspectives.
2. But on occasions like this where we all come together and share that know-how, we will begin to see what it takes for us to succeed collectively.

Harnessing Potential and the Pursuit of Excellence

7. Let me spend a bit of time to talk about the theme of this conference: “Harnessing Potential and the Pursuit of Excellence”
8. The second half of that tagline – “Pursuit of Excellence” – is what our athletes, youth and senior, train so hard towards. To continuously push themselves past their boundaries and achieve breakthrough performances. 
9. But this relentless pursuit for excellence is not an easy one.
1. That is where the first half of this theme – “Harnessing Potential” – becomes so important. It is a simple phrase, but one that is quite complex as it encompasses many different features and facets.  
2. And this is where all our coaches, sport scientists, administrators and medical professionals play a significant role – whether it be in analyzing our athletes’ performance to give them that edge over their competitors, or providing them with important psychological boost, or with nutritional and rehabilitation support to stay injury-free and ensure that their bodies and minds are in the best possible state for competing.
3. And I think we are all familiar that when we compete, it is not just about how physically prepared we are, it is also about how mentally prepared we are.
4. When we all come together, this is where it makes a difference for our athletes.
10. All in all, this theme encapsulates the pivotal role that an athlete support system will have – a complex and dynamic system that is made up of all of you here to bring out the best of our athletes as they step out onto the arena.

Current State of Athlete Support System in Singapore

11. To date, we have 60 full-time sport scientists, 246 coaches and 421 sport administrators, supporting 1,500 carded athletes and 450 student-athletes in the Singapore Sports School.
1. A number that we are blessed to have, but I think we can do more – we  can step up to ensure that the ratio becomes healthier and ensure that more of our athletes are supported.
12. Our long-standing collaboration with Changi General Hospital has also enhanced the sport medicine services provided to our athletes.
13. Let me illustrate the prowess of our athlete support system with two names that I am sure all of us in Singapore are very familiar with. 
1. In August, we saw Shanti gave her all on the track, 
1. But just a few months prior, in April, she sustained a stress injury to her fibula, which she underwent a long and intense period of recovery for.
2. This recovery was made possible by the bespoke sport science and medicine support provided by Principal Physiotherapist, Mr Kelvin Ng.
3. For her to even compete and be on the track at Paris in August was really something down to the constant care and effort provided by the physiotherapist that helped to accelerate her recovery and enable Shanti to live her Olympic dreams.
2. We also saw how Pin Xiu narrowly beat out her closest competitor by 0.06 seconds to clinch the gold in the 100m backstroke S2 event,
1. Even she will tell you that this was not just up to her – behind her success were two crucial individuals that I would like to highlight:
2. First, Sport Physiologist Steve Chow, who meticulously tracks Pin Xiu’s progress to curate her training programme, and Strength and Conditioning Coach Tang Jie Min, who ensures Pin Xiu is physically prepared to give her all in the pool.
3. The gold medals that Pin Xiu have won is – and I am sure she will agree – not just down to her, but to be shared with her whole village of supporters too.
14. This is the kind of support that we must engender, not just for our champions, but as far as we can, for all our athletes, to give them the best possible platform for them to excel and succeed.
15. While the work of our current team of coaches, sport scientists, administrators and medical professionals is commendable, what we do need is to ensure that we have a better support system ratio, and we will work on this.
16. I recently launched the new spexEducation Undergraduate Scholarship – this is a scholarship that will allow our athletes to look after their education, whether early in their career or after they retire from active competition.
1. When I spoke to the athletes, I told them to think about studying sport science and medicine, and come back into our sporting ecosystem as coaches, sport scientists, administrators or doctors.
2. By combining their studied know-how and their experience as athletes, I am confident that they will have a huge value-add to our ecosystem. So, I would encourage as many as possible to come back on this journey.
17. I have also elaborated on the upcoming Home of Team Singapore (HTSG), which will integrate the Singapore Sport Institute (SSI), National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI) and the Singapore Sports School (SSP), and be undergirded by a strong base of sport scientists, administrators, coaches, officials, medical professionals.
1. This will be made possible by an expanded sport science and medicine centre, that will be housed at HTSG.
1. We intend for this centre to be staffed by people with the know-how and experience, and be fully integrated with state-of-the-art gyms, labs and facilities.
2. We want to site this side-by-side with our athletes so that our athletes are supported where he/she lives and train.

Opportunities for Sport Science and Medicine Professionals

18. So, I see this conference as a mini preview of what we can do and see in HTSG - whether it be in building up our expertise, know how, and knowledge through collaborations or have people from different sports share best practices and even partner on certain issues. 
19. Over the coming days, we can expect to hear varied experiences from leading international sport experts, including:
1. Former Olympic alpine skier, Dr. Sophia, who is not only a member in the World Sailing Medical Commission but also sits in the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Programme Commission and Medical and Scientific Commission.
2. Dr. Sophia is also the only Olympian skier who has won an award at the World Sailing Awards. Her story is synonymous with what we are trying to achieve in Singapore, about having cross-disciple knowledge-sharing, and to have the right sport ethos and values.
3. I am glad to see Dr. Sophia here again today and I am grateful that you are here to share your knowledge with us.
4. We also have Mr. Danny Kerry, who was formally Great Britain’s Hockey National Coach and Performance Director, and has also provided consultancy services to national sporting bodies such as the English Rugby Team.
20. Besides these international experts, we will also be hearing from our homegrown professionals – much as I said we need to grow our base; we already have a group who are well-trained and have begun to develop overseas. They are:
1. Dr. Ong Chin Wei, who was once a sport psychologist with the Singapore Sports School. 
1. Before becoming a behavioral scientist with Manchester City in the English Premier League. Now, he is with Mindflick, driving the development of multiple high performing sports across several industries.
2. And Dr. Lionel Chia, who started as a PE teacher in Methodist Girls School, went on to pursue his PhD in Australia, and thereafter, took on the role of the Physical Development Coordinator for Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians.
21. These four speakers are just a few of the many who have an impressive track record, great experience, and views that cut across different sports. 
22. Other than these speeches, we can look forward to break-out sessions and interactive workshops that would delve deeper into specific themes within youth athlete development and sport coaching, science, medicine and technology. 
23. Another exciting highlight would be the research showcase by our finalists of the student investigator awards. This will be the first time that this award is given, in recognition of the fresh ideas and insights of our student researchers.
1. I took a quick peek at the list of research titles and was amazed by the diversity of studies – from technical ones, such as Tan Quah Jian’s research on the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in badminton analytics, to more esoteric and philosophical ones, such as Nur Adilah Masismadi’s research that questions the definition of sporting success.

Conclusion

24. This three-day conference looks set to be a very exciting one, with many insights to be gleaned, all of which would further strengthen our own internal capabilities of the team behind the team to shape the future of sport in Singapore for the better and enhance our pursuit of sporting excellence to the next level. 
25. I want to end off with an old saying: “Knowledge is good, know-how is better, but know-who is best”.
1. This is clearly illustrated today, where the collection of wisdom here is not just in knowledge, but it is also in network. 
2. In being able to build rapport across individuals of different sports and countries, and having the ability to build contacts that you can tap on to understand the nuances of different experiences and best practices which can be applied to your own systems and sport.
26. I wish you all a fruitful time at the conference. Thank you.