Singapore’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes to be honoured in Parliament for their feats in Paris

SINGAPORE – The Republic’s Paris 2024 Olympians and Paralympians will be honoured in October’s Parliament sitting for their showings in France, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong said in a Facebook post on Sept 23.

Mr Tong wrote: “MCCY (Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth) will propose a motion to congratulate all our athletes, in particular, our medallists, Jeralyn Tan, Maximilian Maeder and Yip Pin Xiu, for their achievements at the Games. Our athletes will be invited to attend Parliament.”

The Republic was represented by a 23-strong contingent at the July 26-Aug 11 Olympics, with

Maeder winning a historic kitefoiling bronze medal

.

More unprecedented feats followed at the Aug 28-Sept 8 Paralympics, where 10 athletes flew Singapore’s flag and achieved the country’s best showing of two gold medals and a silver.

Swimmer Yip

retained her 50m and 100m backstroke S2 titles

to take her Games gold medal haul to seven, while Tan won

a historic silver medal in boccia

.

Mr Tong said that some of the athletes’ families and coaches will also be invited to the October session, adding: “They are the invaluable team behind the team, who have been steadfast in their support and unstinting in their passion for Team Singapore. Their support has meant everything to us.”

Meanwhile, preparations for the Los Angeles Games in 2028 and Brisbane 2032 are already underway. Mr Tong said: “We will take the experience and lessons from the Paris campaign, build on what we have achieved, and push on.”

In 2016, Joseph Schooling received a standing ovation in Parliament after winning the 100m butterfly title in Rio de Janeiro for the country’s first Olympic gold medal.

A 13-strong Paralympic contingent, which included Yip, were also honoured in Parliament later that year.

Correction note: An earlier version of the story mentioned Melbourne 2032, instead of Brisbane 2032. This has been corrected.