SINGAPORE: The 33rd SEA Games may have come to an end, but a flurry of discussion continues to shine the spotlight on athletics and its medal returns. At a press conference on Saturday (Dec 20), the Singapore National Olympic Council chief Mark Chay said the athletics should “come to the party” when it comes to the medal hunt.
These comments, as I mentioned in an earlier interview, are reasonable. I do not think it is meant to discredit the landmark performances by athletes, such as Shanti Pereira who successfully defended both her 100m and 200m sprint titles and Calvin Quek who ended a six-decade wait for gold in the men’s 400m hurdles.
The latest performance by the Singapore athletics team – three gold, three silver and three bronze medals - is an improvement from my time as an athlete in the 2000s, and there is reason to celebrate.
That said, while the medal count is an objective comparative metric to tell us where we stand, we must also acknowledge that it doesn’t show the entire picture. It is not sufficient in telling the story of national records broken and personal bests that were set, nor does it capture the effort of a Games debutant who did not freeze under pressure.
The discussions over the past few days have opened up important conversations about Singapore’s athletics scene, its unique historical context and the fruitful efforts of its current administrators, while striking a balance with the harsh reality that the region has pulled ahead of us.
My admiration for our athletes has not wavered but sadly, we have to compare ourselves with others - that’s the essence of high-performance sports. My hope is that we recognise all these factors and turn our focus to what can be done for our athletes.
The life of a track and field athlete is one of patience. We train six days a week for years to see improvements measured only in tenths of a second or in single centimetres.
In my event, the 100m sprint, it all comes down to a delicate synchrony of posture, rhythm and power that can easily be disrupted by a fleeting moment of wavering self-belief.
In this race against our competitors and ourselves, it is about replaying that perfect – or less than perfect – sprint or jump again and again. The cruel irony is that while this psychological intensity is part of our make-up, it can easily become all-consuming.
It was in December 2000 when I first walked away from the sport I had been in since 16. Before me, I had seen too many talented individuals leave my sport, worn down by politics and the need to seek more sustainable sources of income.
Feeling that my dream of breaking the national record was out of reach, I left athletics to begin a new life – until one Friday afternoon when I met former national swimmer Ang Peng Siong who offered me a job at his swim school. With his signature calm conviction, he told me not to give up.
He fashioned a makeshift sled from a spare tyre in his car and a harness, so I could do acceleration sprints. He even began spotting me in the gym whenever I had to do half-squats.
Bit by bit, he rekindled my love for sprinting and gave me the courage to try again.
The athletics ecosystem and its policies have evolved since, providing athletes with much-needed support to grow and push beyond their mid-20s.
For one, it is heartening to see the current Singapore Athletics (SA) realising the importance of opportunities and race exposure – an enlightened perspective that I wish SA shared when I was an athlete. For three years in my early 20s, we were not allowed to run individual events at the SEA Games and it greatly limited my growth as a sprinter.
Refined policies have created better opportunities, as well as a more stable developmental pathway for athletes.
A talent like Shanti may emerge only once in two decades, yet crucially, she has been able to train from primary school through the sports school system and later juggle high-performance sport with the demands of a university education. Support structures, such as the Peter Lim Scholarship and the spexScholarship, have helped to keep her in the sport long enough for her to blossom into a world-ranking athlete and Asian champion.
This is not only a testament to Shanti’s resilience, but also to an evolving system that has exposed her to global competition and training since the age of 12.
As we celebrate the breaking of decades-old records – in the form of Kampton Kam earning a silver in the men’s high jump for Singapore’s first in 30 years, jumper Gabriel Lee winning Singapore’s first triple jump medal since 1971 and Andrew Medina getting a bronze in the men’s long jump to mark Singapore’s first medal in the event since 1983 – we must ask what has been mended after so long to make these breakthroughs possible.
Kudos to SA for implementing a national jumps programme. These types of investments must be implemented in all events for us to reap further rewards in 2029, when it is Singapore’s turn to host the SEA Games.
Andrew George Medina during the men's long jump at the SEA Games 2025 on Dec 15, 2025. (Photo: SportSG/Jeremy Lee)
It is crucial to note that each sporting ecosystem is unique, due to factors such as history and policies, making direct comparisons akin to comparing apples and oranges.
But the underlying principles and best practices are largely sport-agnostic. If applied thoughtfully, they can benefit any discipline.
My time with Uncle Peng Siong introduced me to the world of swimming where I found similarities between his sport and mine.
The club system is one thing that athletics can borrow from the swimming playbook. These swimming clubs have sound programmes run by former swimmers such as Olympians Tao Li and Uncle Peng Siong, which have helped to form a pipeline funnelling talents to the National Training Centre.
While there are clubs in athletics, the breadth and depth of programmes can be improved. This is a factor of funding difficulties, which unfortunately creates a self-perpetuating cycle.
The true mark of a sporting nation is not just about top-down policies. Societal mindsets must evolve along with it.
The struggle to balance consistent quality training with a full-time job or studies is something many Singaporean athletes face, including swimmers. This is why we need more stakeholders to come together to support our athletes, especially those from under-resourced backgrounds.
So, while SA President Lien Choong Luen and his team work away in their boardroom on strategic alliances to fund our athletes, more local corporate entities should step in.
We must learn to appreciate the value of sports, as an end in itself and not a means to an end. In the same vein, parents and coaches must be prudent in navigating the school system and the Direct School Admission, and not overtrain our young athletes just to get into a brand name school or to win a national school games medal in the short term.
While the law of probability notes that a small population may yield a smaller talent pool, experience over the years suggests there is no shortage of gifted local athletes. Everyone, from parents and administrators to corporates, must recognise that talent development follows a non-linear path and demands patience.
In a nation that prizes speed and efficiency, sports requires us to embrace a mindset of long term-ism.
So, you see, this is a complex issue that requires many things to work in synchrony for athletics to join the party in subsequent SEA Games. Let us not take the recent conversations as a blame game, but a platform for us to see different views, examine them and take action for our athletes.
Just like how Uncle Peng Siong extended a helping hand on that fateful afternoon in December 2000. That same Singaporean spirit can, and must, continue to live on today.
U.K. Shyam is a former national athlete who held the national record for the 100m sprint for 22 years from 2001 to 2023. He retired from athletics in 2005 and is now pursuing a career in education.
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These comments, as I mentioned in an earlier interview, are reasonable. I do not think it is meant to discredit the landmark performances by athletes, such as Shanti Pereira who successfully defended both her 100m and 200m sprint titles and Calvin Quek who ended a six-decade wait for gold in the men’s 400m hurdles.
The latest performance by the Singapore athletics team – three gold, three silver and three bronze medals - is an improvement from my time as an athlete in the 2000s, and there is reason to celebrate.
That said, while the medal count is an objective comparative metric to tell us where we stand, we must also acknowledge that it doesn’t show the entire picture. It is not sufficient in telling the story of national records broken and personal bests that were set, nor does it capture the effort of a Games debutant who did not freeze under pressure.
The discussions over the past few days have opened up important conversations about Singapore’s athletics scene, its unique historical context and the fruitful efforts of its current administrators, while striking a balance with the harsh reality that the region has pulled ahead of us.
My admiration for our athletes has not wavered but sadly, we have to compare ourselves with others - that’s the essence of high-performance sports. My hope is that we recognise all these factors and turn our focus to what can be done for our athletes.
THE LIFE OF A TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETE
The life of a track and field athlete is one of patience. We train six days a week for years to see improvements measured only in tenths of a second or in single centimetres.
In my event, the 100m sprint, it all comes down to a delicate synchrony of posture, rhythm and power that can easily be disrupted by a fleeting moment of wavering self-belief.
In this race against our competitors and ourselves, it is about replaying that perfect – or less than perfect – sprint or jump again and again. The cruel irony is that while this psychological intensity is part of our make-up, it can easily become all-consuming.
It was in December 2000 when I first walked away from the sport I had been in since 16. Before me, I had seen too many talented individuals leave my sport, worn down by politics and the need to seek more sustainable sources of income.
Feeling that my dream of breaking the national record was out of reach, I left athletics to begin a new life – until one Friday afternoon when I met former national swimmer Ang Peng Siong who offered me a job at his swim school. With his signature calm conviction, he told me not to give up.
He fashioned a makeshift sled from a spare tyre in his car and a harness, so I could do acceleration sprints. He even began spotting me in the gym whenever I had to do half-squats.
Bit by bit, he rekindled my love for sprinting and gave me the courage to try again.
CHANGE IN ATHLETICS ECOSYSTEM
The athletics ecosystem and its policies have evolved since, providing athletes with much-needed support to grow and push beyond their mid-20s.
For one, it is heartening to see the current Singapore Athletics (SA) realising the importance of opportunities and race exposure – an enlightened perspective that I wish SA shared when I was an athlete. For three years in my early 20s, we were not allowed to run individual events at the SEA Games and it greatly limited my growth as a sprinter.
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Refined policies have created better opportunities, as well as a more stable developmental pathway for athletes.
A talent like Shanti may emerge only once in two decades, yet crucially, she has been able to train from primary school through the sports school system and later juggle high-performance sport with the demands of a university education. Support structures, such as the Peter Lim Scholarship and the spexScholarship, have helped to keep her in the sport long enough for her to blossom into a world-ranking athlete and Asian champion.
This is not only a testament to Shanti’s resilience, but also to an evolving system that has exposed her to global competition and training since the age of 12.
As we celebrate the breaking of decades-old records – in the form of Kampton Kam earning a silver in the men’s high jump for Singapore’s first in 30 years, jumper Gabriel Lee winning Singapore’s first triple jump medal since 1971 and Andrew Medina getting a bronze in the men’s long jump to mark Singapore’s first medal in the event since 1983 – we must ask what has been mended after so long to make these breakthroughs possible.
Kudos to SA for implementing a national jumps programme. These types of investments must be implemented in all events for us to reap further rewards in 2029, when it is Singapore’s turn to host the SEA Games.
Andrew George Medina during the men's long jump at the SEA Games 2025 on Dec 15, 2025. (Photo: SportSG/Jeremy Lee)
LEARNING FROM THE SWIMMING PLAYBOOK?
It is crucial to note that each sporting ecosystem is unique, due to factors such as history and policies, making direct comparisons akin to comparing apples and oranges.
But the underlying principles and best practices are largely sport-agnostic. If applied thoughtfully, they can benefit any discipline.
My time with Uncle Peng Siong introduced me to the world of swimming where I found similarities between his sport and mine.
The club system is one thing that athletics can borrow from the swimming playbook. These swimming clubs have sound programmes run by former swimmers such as Olympians Tao Li and Uncle Peng Siong, which have helped to form a pipeline funnelling talents to the National Training Centre.
While there are clubs in athletics, the breadth and depth of programmes can be improved. This is a factor of funding difficulties, which unfortunately creates a self-perpetuating cycle.
Related:
MINDSET SHIFTS TO BETTER SUPPORT ATHLETES
The true mark of a sporting nation is not just about top-down policies. Societal mindsets must evolve along with it.
The struggle to balance consistent quality training with a full-time job or studies is something many Singaporean athletes face, including swimmers. This is why we need more stakeholders to come together to support our athletes, especially those from under-resourced backgrounds.
So, while SA President Lien Choong Luen and his team work away in their boardroom on strategic alliances to fund our athletes, more local corporate entities should step in.
We must learn to appreciate the value of sports, as an end in itself and not a means to an end. In the same vein, parents and coaches must be prudent in navigating the school system and the Direct School Admission, and not overtrain our young athletes just to get into a brand name school or to win a national school games medal in the short term.
While the law of probability notes that a small population may yield a smaller talent pool, experience over the years suggests there is no shortage of gifted local athletes. Everyone, from parents and administrators to corporates, must recognise that talent development follows a non-linear path and demands patience.
In a nation that prizes speed and efficiency, sports requires us to embrace a mindset of long term-ism.
So, you see, this is a complex issue that requires many things to work in synchrony for athletics to join the party in subsequent SEA Games. Let us not take the recent conversations as a blame game, but a platform for us to see different views, examine them and take action for our athletes.
Just like how Uncle Peng Siong extended a helping hand on that fateful afternoon in December 2000. That same Singaporean spirit can, and must, continue to live on today.
U.K. Shyam is a former national athlete who held the national record for the 100m sprint for 22 years from 2001 to 2023. He retired from athletics in 2005 and is now pursuing a career in education.
Continue reading...