SINGAPORE – Ahead of the men’s 10,000m heat at the 1972 Munich Olympics, one man stood out as he was getting ready to compete barefoot.
His rivals stared at him, a race official asked if he had forgotten his shoes. But P.C. Suppiah went on to clock 31min 59.2sec to break his national record of 32:18.8 and become the first Singaporean to go below 32 minutes in the event.
Eleven years later, with adequate footwear, it was badminton player Wong Shoon Keat’s turn to achieve the improbable when he overcame Indonesian Hastomo Arbi to win the country’s first SEA Games men’s singles gold. Wong also beat Indonesia’s world champion Icuk Sugiarto in the team event.
Times have changed as equipment improves, as do sports science and nutrition. The current generation has broken new ground, with Joseph Schooling’s historic Olympic gold in 2016 and Loh Kean Yew’s stunning badminton world title in 2021.
But what has remained is that good old-fashioned “semangat” – the unique Singapore spirit.
At the launch on Nov 25 of Sport in Singapore: Visions for Change, the final book in a trilogy by historian Nick Aplin, Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam said: “One is about the sheer grit and determination of those exceptional individuals and teams of the past, the OGs as we like to put it, or original gangsters.
“If we can find ways to rekindle the grit and determination of the OGs, plus the far superior infrastructure, coaching, technical support, coordination, spotting of talents, I think we can achieve much higher levels of excellence in the years to come.”
Citing football and volleyball, President Tharman, who played hockey, football, cricket, volleyball, sepak takraw and rugby in his youth, also noted that “our sports are still too ethnically defined in Singapore” compared to the past.
He added: “We want to change that for two reasons. First, because we are missing out on lots of talents. The other reason goes back to the emotions that are involved when we plough the field of multi-culturalism and multi-racialism – we are actually developing a deeper team spirit in Singapore, and sports is one of the ways in which we can achieve it.”
The event also marked the opening of a sport heritage exhibition at the National Library Building as well as Sport Singapore’s 50th anniversary.
Past and current athletes were taken down memory lane, as they could recap over five decades of memories through panel installations of preserved publications that were curated by Teresa Teo Guttensohn, SportSG’s sport heritage division’s assistant director overseeing education and outreach, in collaboration with the National Heritage Board.
Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong noted that national agency SportSG remains committed to its motto and said: “Through sports, we can build a community that is truly inclusive, a lot more accessible, a fair, just and equitable society. It is for this reason that we continue to invest strongly in sport and will continue to do so.”
He highlighted old and new programmes such as the Pesta Sukan competitions, Olympic e-Sports Week, ActiveSG academies and clubs, Para Sport Academy and Disability Sport Master Plan which serve as catalysts for greater community participation and stronger pipeline for sporting talent.
Other projects he cited include the Punggol Regional Sports Centre and Toa Payoh Integrated Development, expected to be completed in 2024 and 2030 respectively, and the Kallang Alive Precinct following the Government’s takeover of the Sports Hub in 2022.
SportSG chief executive Alan Goh, meanwhile, has set his sights on more success in the next five decades. In 2023, Singapore athletes claimed world titles in bowling, English billiards, kitefoiling, para-swimming and wushu.
Goh said: “It’s amazing to achieve all these... but in the next 50 years, we should try to do better than that.
“Obviously, we want and need more resources but it is a fact that government funding has increased over the years... they have been supportive. At the same time, there is space for corporates to do more.
“As long as we stay clear on how to support our athletes to do better, and how to support our community to be healthier through sports, we won’t be far off.”
