Singapore sport gets $500,000 boost via SOF-Edwin Lee Yong Chuan Sports Fund

SINGAPORE – When he was 12, Gary Tan had an opportunity that most young swimmers could only dream of – a trip to the United States for a training programme.

Tan, now the national coach and performance director (swimming) at Singapore Aquatics (SAQ), recalls the experience as something that inspired him to pursue his love for swimming and sport even further. In the decade that followed, he went on to set four national swimming records and represented Singapore twice in the Olympics.

The 43-year-old remains grateful to the man who gave him that opportunity – Edwin Lee, then-president of the Chinese Swimming Club. It was Lee who personally funded the trip for Tan and 59 other athletes from the club.

Tan said: “For Uncle Edwin, as we affectionately called him, he really has devoted a lot of effort and time into promoting sports, and being able to harness athletes, to give them an opportunity to train overseas, or even if they have expenses that need to be covered.

“He didn’t want anything in relation to show that he was donating this amount of money, but what he wanted was to bring out the best in the individual.”

Now, Tan is hoping to motivate others in the sport through SAQ’s latest initiative, the SAQ Next Gen Coaching Scholarship, which aims to support the development of a selected coach by sponsoring his training at the association’s National Training Centre (NTC).

The scholarship recipient will receive a stipend during the 12-month programme aimed to provide experience and coaching development in a high performance environment, as well as learning to integrate sports science into their own training programmes.

The scholarship will be seed funded through the Singapore Olympic Foundation (SOF)-Edwin Lee Yong Chuan Sports Fund, which was established with the donation of $500,000 by the Lee Kim Tah Foundation in honour of the late Edwin Lee.

Edwin Lee, who died in 2021 aged 65, was a veteran sports administrator who served as president of the Singapore Tennis Association and Singapore Taekwondo Federation, vice-president of the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA), and treasurer of the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC), over decades. The former CEO of property developer Lee Kim Tah Group was also a director at the SOF.

His daughter Nicole Lee said in a statement: “For most of his life, dad was passionate about inspiring young athletes and helping them to achieve their sporting dreams. Through this fund, we hope to continue his legacy.”

Launched on July 16 at the World Aquatics Championships Arena, the fund is aimed at advancing competitive sport in Singapore. While its first initiative is focused on swimming, it could include other sports in future.

Speaking at the launch, SOF chairman Ng Ser Miang noted that swimming was one of the sports that Edwin Lee was most passionate about, adding that the latter was also instrumental in developing the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme for the STTA, which reaped Singapore’s first Olympic medal in 48 years at Beijing 2008.

SAQ president Kenneth Goh said: “We are channelling more attention to develop local coaches. They know the system, they know the swimmers, they can communicate better, and the goal is for these coaches to eventually plug into the club system as well.

“We have more attention on the sport, so we hope to see an increase in participation. So corresponding with that increase in the level of participation, we also need to level up the quality and quantity of the coaches as well.”

He added that the funding was essential in enhancing the scholarship, which had previously existed as a scheme to allow coaches to spend time in the NTC, and he hopes that the recipient will be able to help develop swimmers at different levels in the clubs.

Ms Grace Fu, SNOC president and Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, was present at the launch.

She said: “Community support plays a vital role in Singapore’s sporting journey. Through their generous donation, Mr Edwin Lee’s family joins a meaningful philanthropic effort that partners with the Singapore Olympic Foundation and our stakeholders to build a stronger, more sustainable sporting ecosystem for the future.”