Our shared journey towards Sporting Excellence and beyond

Speech by Mr Edwin Tong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth & Second Minister for Law, at the Singapore Sport Excellence Athletes Investiture on 15 April 2025

Good evening Team Singapore,

1. Last year, I was right here and I had the honour of presenting certificates to our first batch of spexPotential athletes and the 11th cohort of spexScholars.
1. And today, we’re back here again to celebrate another very important milestone.
2. Our spexScholars have collectively achieved an incredible 66 podium finishes at the World and Asian levels. 66 World and Asian podium finishes.
1. They have contributed to all our Olympic and Paralympic medal wins.
2. And tonight, that legacy will have to be continued by all of you.
3. Our Singapore sporting story is far from over.
1. We are far from done. And it is still being written.
2. In fact, I think this will just be the start of a new phase, for all of you.
3. And we are very proud to walk this journey with you, supporting your growth in and beyond sport.

A Bold Vision for Sporting Excellence

4. So I see tonight’s ceremony as more than just a ceremony. It is more than just an investiture, or a presentation of certificates.
1. Tonight symbolises, and firmly demonstrates our belief in our athletes and our commitment to Singapore sport.
2. We want every young Singaporean who is in sport, to see sport as a meaningful and successful path that they can take.
5. We have made several key moves to ensure that when you choose this path, you will be well supported on your journey. Let me summarise a few recent ones.
6. First, we’re building a new Home for Team Singapore — and this is a big part of the Kallang Alive Masterplan, you heard PM speak about it in the video earlier.
1. This integrated campus will unite all the elements of high- performance sport.
2. This is a major project. It will take time, but we’re already laying the groundwork now through an integrated structure that will bring sport agencies together to collectively raise our performance.
7. Second, we’ve streamlined our support behind each of you – each athlete in different sports.
1. The SSI and NYSI are now one, consolidated —they form the High Performance Sport Institute (HPSI).
2. In time, it will also come together with the Singapore Sports School, with a very simple goal: build an ecosystem where every part works seamlessly to deliver the best support to our athletes. So that they can fly further, soar higher and run faster and succeed on the world stage, for Singapore.

Strengthening the Team Behind You

8. At the same time, you all know that behind every athlete, behind every successful athlete that is here tonight, is really a team or a village: a coach, a sport scientist, or a physio — there are so many unsung heroes who elevate your game.
9. What we are doing is also seeking to professionalise how we hire and how we develop key personnel, and important personnel, like head coaches and technical directors.
1. We will centralise these hires and rotate them across the different NSAs – National Sports Associations – and provide more growth opportunities for them and deepen expertise across the board.
10. We have top international coaches like Coach Oleg for Fencing, Coach Luis (Athletics), and Coach Kim (Badminton), who have already made a deep impact in our sporting landscape.
1. Through mentorship sessions, they’re also helping raise the standards of local coaching.
11. But beyond people alone, we are also investing in cutting- edge sports science, medicine, and sports technology — anything from data analytics to advanced recovery methods, to new innovations that will give our athletes that extra competitive edge on the pitch or in the pool.

Support Beyond the Podium

12. More importantly, beyond supporting each of you as an athlete, we will also support your life goals, as you train and compete hard at the highest levels for Singapore.
13. And this is because we know, that like anyone else in Singapore, even as an athlete, you have goals beyond sport — academic dreams, future careers, long-term security.
1. And we want you to pursue and be able to pursue these dreams, without compromise.
2. Like anyone else.
14. And that’s why we are:
1. Increasing the monthly stipends and introducing the CPF top-ups for spexScholars. We announced this last year. And we do this because we want you to be more financially secure. We want you to have peace of mind when you go into your sport, you train hard, you compete hard, you fly the flag for Singapore. We want you to know this is a career and it is a serious career.
2. We have also introduced the spexEducation Undergraduate Scholarship, so that you don’t have to make that hard choice between sport and studies. If you want to do it together, we will support you. If you want to do it one after the other, we will also support you.
15. That’s why we have two career tracks in this scholarship:
1. We have the Dual-Career Track — for athletes who want to balance studies with training and competition.
2. Or we have the New-Career Track — for those who want to begin studies after retiring from sport.
16. Sometimes at the age of 19, 20, you might decide if I pursue my academic dreams at the same time, it might compromise both. So why not allow me to train, compete, be fully dedicated to it before I go back to my studies and pursue my academic dreams. And that’s what this is designed for.
17. And I say that we have made it flexible because each athlete’s journey is unique, no two athletes in two sports, are the same. Therefore, this scholarship is designed with that flexibility in mind — covering tuition fees, course materials, and also offering career pathways in the sports sector for those in relevant programmes. We want you to come back, to contribute to sports, play a different role in a different capacity.
18. And I am proud to share this evening that we’re awarding 12 scholars in our inaugural SpexEducation Undergraduate Scholarships— 9 on the Dual-Career track and 3 on the New- Career track. My Congratulations to all of you!

Building on Decades of Support

19. These initiatives were built on solid foundations, that we have enjoyed for many years. Our spexProgramme started in 1993. Every few ears, we add to it – we increase it, we enhance it and we push the boundaries.
1. And at the pinnacle of this programme is the spexScholarship — helping full-time athletes with World and Asian medal potential.
20. I want to give you One example and that is Jason the. Aafter years of training, years of near-misses and, and as he will say,a lot of heartbreak, he finally clinched his first career title at the Thailand Masters.
1. I think those of us who saw him, whether in person or on TV. You did not just see how much it meant to him, you felt how much it meant to him and to his family.
2. And I think his journey is a testament to what we can achieve, a testament to perseverance and the value of strong, holistic support, behind him, believing in him and pushing him along.
3. Congratulations Jason, I am looking forward to your next title, and your next title, and beyond that.

Nurturing Future Champions

21. We have also extended and enhanced our support to young aspiring athletes who demonstrate strong potential for Singapore.
22. We launched spexPotential last year to bridge youth and elite sports. Again, why are we doing this? Because we recognise that some of our athletes upstream may need more support at an earlier stage of their career, to make them bridge that gap to jump from potential to podium, like you saw on the video.
1. Already, athletes like Mike Ong and Nu’man Syahmi have helped to clinch Singapore’s first Asian men’s tenpin bowling gold, first timesince 1982.
2. James Ang, another spexPotential,brought home gold in the Paris Handisport Open in the 400m.
3. I think our spexPotential athletes are showing their potential. And many of them are realising that potential.
23. This evening, I am very proud to say thatwe will welcome 26 more new athletes into the spexPotential family — now we have71 athletes across 22 sports. Congratulations to all of you!

Education and Sport, Hand in Hand

24. But it would not be complete, if I did not acknowledge the partners. Especially our education partners who have journeyed with us, opened up their thinking, push the boundaries on how we can be more flexible, working with us, who are solidlybehind us to support this academic pursuit which we know is a very important journey, and sometimes crossroads for our athletes. We will be shortly signing an MOU with all six of Singapore’s Autonomous Universities and the Singapore Sports School today.
25. This partnership is important because it means:
1. Aptitude-based admissions that value your sporting achievements.
2. Flexible schedules to accommodate training and competition. And we know how important that is, to be flexible so that you can train and compete in The SEA Games, Asian Games and other Major Games, do not wait for exam schedules, so we have to work around it.
3. This MOU will also provide dedicated mentorship and structured check-ins to support your development at each step of the way.
26. Let me give you two examples. Athletes like:
1. Toh Wei Soong, who graduated from NUS with a BA in PPE in 2024 – he did so whilst at the same time winning multiple Asian Para Games medals with the support from his university,
2. Danielle Lim, who won SEA Games silver whilst on academic leave, was able to benefit from this support.
3. So these two, plus many other athletes down the road will be able to benefit from this programme and this flexible framework, that allows our athletes to compete and also pursue their academic excellence.
27. So this evening, let me thank our partners:
1. NUS;
2. NTU;
3. SIT;
4. SMU;
5. SUSS; and
6. SUTD.
28. I thank them all for their strong partnership. They are here with us this evening and I want to say that it really takes a village to make this work. And I want to thank you for your openness and your flexibility. And more importantly, for your belief in your students, who are also our athletes.

Concluding Remarks

29. In closing, I want to emphasise one message.
30. All our athletes, I want you to know, that we are fully committed to supporting each and every one of you, at every stage of your journey, whether it is on the field or off the field.
1. And with that support, there comes a shared mutual responsibility.
2. We only ask that you continue to embody the values that make us proud to call you Team Singapore athletes.
3. Because beyond medals and records, it is actually your character, your fortitude, your determination, your ability to shine and do your best with the Singapore flag on your jersey, that makes a big difference.
4. Many of you may follow in the footsteps of our previous generation of Team Singapore athletes. And I know you do – you look up to them as your trailblazers, pathfinders, and mentors. They become role models and they continue to help us inspire the next generation.
5. We ask that you uphold the values of courage, integrity, resilience and sportsmanship.
6. These are the true values that define the Team Singapore spirit, and indeed these are the values that resonate across Singapore, whether in sport or otherwise.
31. One athlete who has embodied these values throughout her illustrious career, is none other than our national shuttler Jessica Tan.
1. Jessica is retiring. Many of you, like me, have had the honour and privilege of watching Jessica live at court side or maybe on TV, on some of the world’s biggest and most illustrious international stages.
2. And while her moments on the court have of course dazzled us – she and Terry have left us with sometimes with our jaws wide open, wondering how did they get that back, how did they retrieve this and how did they win the point, all that has dazzled us, made us proud and has left us with fond memories. But if you think back to her career, it is really her fortitude, her never say die attitude and her determination that has made a difference. It is not about medals and not about podium alone.
3. She always gave her best, no matter the circumstances.
4. And Jessica, I recall your path to the Olympics just last year was filled with challenges, with injuries that threatened to derail some of the top athletes, most experienced athletes. They force you to have moments of anxiety , and time away from family – but you remained focused and determined.
5. And you were willing to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve your dreams and bring glory to Singapore – and for that, I say thank you very much.
6. But I am also confident that if I ask you now again, today, looking back at your career, “would you do it all over again?” I think you would say yes – I think she is nodding, and I think she agrees. She would say yes in a heartbeat.
1. And what is important for me, and for us in government, is that we want future generations of athletes, like Jessica, to be able to say yes, we will do it for Singapore!
7. So, while I am sad to see you hang up your racket, I am very excited to learn that you intend to pursue a career in sport management. And that you got a place in one of the best universities doing that.
8. And We are very happy to continue supporting your journey, with the spexEducation Undergraduate Scholarship, to ease your transition – to help you along, help you succeed in your next phase and welcome you back to mentor a new group of young athletes, like you many years ago starting out. You will play a big role in shaping their future.
9. We look forward to welcoming you back to the sporting fraternity, when you have completed your studies.
10. I am sure you will, inspire another generation of athletes to greater heights and beyond.

Looking Ahead

32. 2025, this year, promises to be another exciting year:
1. We will have the World Aquatics and Para Swimming Championships, right here in Singapore.
2. SEA Games will be in Thailand, in December.
3. And The ASEAN Para Games in January 2026. All happening within the next nine months or so.
33. We hope that with each passing generation of spexScholars, spexPotential and spexEducation, this support gives you clarity and peace of mind to fully focus on your training and on your performance. We want you to know that you are valued members of the sporting fraternity and valued members of the Singaporean society.
34. To all our scholarship recipients — congratulations to all of you.
35. You will be, if not already, shaping Singapore’s future sporting legacy, and we are right behind you — every step of the way.
36. Thank you very much to all of you, I will look forward to congratulating you on stage later. But I want you to know that on your shoulders are the dreams of future generations as well – because with each passing generation, we will do better and better and better. And Singapore’s sports best days are ahead of us.
37. Thank you very much.