Singapore all set to bolster sports culture

Article posted by Coliseum, August 26^th, 2024

Image: Sports Singapore

In a move that augments Kallang (a residential town and planning area in Singapore’s Central Region) as the home of the Singapore athletes, the Singapore Sports School (SSP) will move there from its current location in Woodlands (town in Singapore), the Prime Minister (PM) of Singapore, Lawrence Wong, revealed in his maiden National Day Rally speech on August 18^th.

‘THE STRAITS TIMES’ stated that the relocation was part of several sporting plans that PM Wong shared in his speech as the Government looks to strengthen the Republic’s sports culture and high performance outcomes.

The Singapore Sports School is a specialized independent boarding school under the purview of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth of the Government of Singapore that offers an integrated sports and academic program to the secondary and post-secondary students in Singapore.

‘THE STRAITS TIMES’ further stated that the move will be part of the Kallang Alive Masterplan. Details of the timeline will be announced in due course.

The 89-hectare Kallang Alive Masterplan has been designed to herald a new era for sports and recreation and reflects Singapore’s drive to become both a garden City and a smart nation.

The new SSP will be housed alongside the new Sports Science and Sports Medicine facilities and the national training centers for several key sports making it the new home of Team Singapore, declared PM Wong, adding that this will allow the student-athletes to “study and train together with the senior athletes”.

These plans stem from the Government’s objective to do more to strengthen the sporting culture in Singapore and to support all Singaporeans in realizing their sporting dreams, said PM Wong.

The SSP, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in April, was built at a cost of $75 million. It offers both secondary and post-secondary academic programs for the student-athletes aged 13 to 18.

Its 7ha campus in Woodlands Drive houses facilities such as the two Olympic-size swimming pools, a 700-seat indoor multisports auditorium, a badminton training center with 12 courts, and a table tennis center with up to 16 tables.

Its successful alumni include Olympians such as the Asian Games gold medal-winning sprinter Shanti Pereira (Singaporean track and field athlete), fencer Amita Berthier (Singaporean fencer) and the former swimmer Tao Li (China-born Singaporean competitive swimmer).

The new SSP is expected to be sited on the plot of land currently occupied by the Kallang Netball Centre and the Kallang Squash Centre.

Netball Singapore, which recently received a lease extension on its Kallang facility till 2026, will be moving to its new home in the Toa Payoh Integrated Development which is scheduled for completion by 2030.

Netball Singapore, founded in 1962, is the national governing body for netball in Singapore. In 2002, the association was named a merit sport by the Singapore Sports Council which was renamed the Sport Singapore in 2014. In 1999, Netball Singapore established the Netball Super League with six teams competing to emerge as the Champion.

Sport Singapore (previously known as the Singapore Sports Council) is a statutory Board of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. Its core purpose is to inspire the Singapore spirit and transform Singapore through sport.

The Netball Super League is a five-month-long, 15-round netball tournament developed to cater for the elite players in Singapore. It was established and is governed by the Netball Singapore and six teams compete.

The national table tennis player Ser Lin Qian is among those who are excited by plans to bring the sports community, including the SSP, together in a single location.

Ser, who is currently in a joint diploma in business studies program offered by Ngee Ann Polytechnic and SSP, said, “The overall experience of the student-athletes will be better with new facilities, more opportunities, convenient access to a wider range of resources and support, and integration with the wider sporting family.”

The 35ha Sports Hub, which opened in 2014, includes the 55,000- capacity National Stadium, the 12,000-capacity Indoor Stadium, the 300 to 3,000-capacity OCBC Arena, and the 3,000-capacity OCBC Aquatic Centre with the Kallang Football Hub and the 1,297-capacity Kallang Tennis Hub recently added to its vicinity.

While the Sports Hub has made Singapore’s sports scene more vibrant with the Government taking over its management in 2022, “we have the ability to unlock its full potential and make the whole Kallang area more alive”, observed PM Wong.

Plans for a new indoor arena were revealed in March with PM Wong adding that it will have a capacity of 18,000, higher than the Indoor Stadium’s capacity of 12,000.

The national badminton player Yeo Jia Min is looking forward to the new arena saying, “Every year the Singapore Badminton Open takes place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The atmosphere has been amazing and it’s great to hear the local fans cheering in the stands. With the new indoor arena, I’m sure there will be opportunities for the bigger sporting events or games to take place for the athletes and the spectators, so I’m looking forward to it.”

But Kallang will not just be the home of the Singapore’s athletes.

PM Wong added that it will also be a place for all the Singaporeans to enjoy sports.

He said, “You don’t need to be an elite athlete to enjoy the facilities at Kallang. You may be a weekend player, or a beginner, or someone trying to pick up a new sport. Whatever your level, so long as you have an interest in sports, there will be something for you here.”

To facilitate this, the main road that runs through the Sports Hub will be converted into a pedestrianized community boulevard where the sporting programs will be held.

During his speech at the ITE College Central in Ang Mo Kio (Singapore), PM Wong also acknowledged that more young Singaporeans with talent in sports are taking it seriously and excelling at the highest levels as he congratulated Team Singapore’s Olympians who recently concluded their campaigns in Paris (France).

Among those mentioned was Maximilian Maeder (Singaporean kitesurfer) who was in attendance. The 17-year-old clinched a historic men’s kite bronze at Paris 2024 on the National Day for Singapore’s first Olympic medal since the former swimmer Joseph Schooling’s historic gold at Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) 2016.

Praising the likes of Maximilian, Pereira, badminton players Loh Kean Yew and Yeo, and the para shooter Daniel Chan as examples of sporting excellence, PM Wong concluded, “The mindsets are changing. In the past, parents were not so sure about their children pursuing sports as a career. Now, we see more successful role models.”

The 2024 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and branded as Paris 2024, was an international multisport event that took place from July 26^th-August 11^th, 2024 in Paris, France, with the opening ceremony having taken place on July 26^th.

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