Athletes must come first: Mark Chay

SINGAPORE - In light of conflicts arising between athletes and officials in recent years, it is imperative that national sports associations (NSAs) take a more athlete-centric approach.

This is what newly-appointed Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) Athletes' Commission chairman Mark Chay hopes to achieve in his term which ends in 2020.

The ex-national swimmer takes over from former national water polo player Yip Renkai, who stepped down as chairman due to his new role as Singapore Athletics' general manager.

Yip now holds an advisory role on the Athletes' Commission.

The new committee, comprising nine members, was elected at last year's SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur.

Chay, together with vice-chairman Dipna Lim-Prasad (athletics) and member Jasmine Yeong-Nathan (bowling), are serving their second terms after their first stint from 2014 to 2017.

"During Renkai's term, he did a great job in bringing more prominence and awareness that there's an Athletes' Commission and what we do," Chay, 35, told The Straits Times on Monday (Feb 5).

"I hope to carry on with that and also have more meaningful athlete representation within the NSAs."

Chay noted that much of the athletes' unhappiness with their respective NSAs had to do with selection criteria.

The two-time Olympian said: "If NSAs consider athletes when making their selection criteria or policies from the start, then you are unlikely to have these kinds of problems later on.

"You can't make everyone happy but if you always have the athletes at heart, you can't go wrong."

Two weeks ago, SNOC president Tan Chuan-Jin had encouraged NSAs to consider having greater athlete representation in their management committees.

Chay, who has already started meeting representatives from the various NSAs, said educating athletes is also a key goal.

Initiatives to properly inform athletes of what they should do regarding issues such as sexual harassment and anti-doping will be revealed in due time.

Chay also said his team are working closely with the Singapore Sports Institute to consider hosting an athletes' forum.

Shooter Martina Veloso, the youngest member of the Athletes' Commission, is looking forward to serving her first term.

"To see what we can do for the future of sport in Singapore is something I would like to contribute to, and it's interesting because it's something new for me," said the 18-year-old. "I look up to Dipna, Jasmine and (bowler) Shayna (Ng) as role models, so to be in the same commission as them is pretty cool.