S’pore Disability Sports Council launches NextGen Para Talent Programme to support youth athletes

SINGAPORE – Competing at the 2025 Asian Youth Para Games was an eye-opening experience for para-swimmer Moza Baihakki, who won two golds, a silver and bronze at the Dubai meet.

Travelling overseas without her parents for the first time, her international debut not only taught her to be independent and how to manage her schedule wisely, but also drove her to work harder.

To be sure, juggling her sporting commitments with her studies at St Margaret’s School (Secondary) has not always been easy. But the Secondary 3 student could soon get a boost with the NextGen Para Talent Programme, which was launched on April 11.

Run by the Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC) and supported by Temasek Foundation, the initiative aims to identify, support and develop aspiring athletes with disabilities aged nine to 35, who have the potential and ambition to represent the Republic regionally and internationally.

“It’s a great stepping stone and initiative for the current and future para-athletes,” said Moza, 14, who was born with part of her right arm missing due to a rare congenital condition known as amniotic band syndrome.

“It’s a great booster since it’s tailored to each athlete and their needs.”

Plans for the four-year pilot programme were unveiled at the opening ceremony of the Singapore Para Sports Championships 2026 at Our Tampines Hub, with Senior Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth Low Yen Ling as the guest of honour.

The initiative targets athletes who have not been identified by national support schemes such as the Sport Excellence Scholarship, which provides enhanced support for elite athletes.

Selected athletes will benefit from individualised training plans, which are co-developed with coaches.

Other areas of support include structured coaching and training, monthly sessions with the national team and national coaches, and access to strength and conditioning and physiotherapy services.

There will also be opportunities to compete locally and internationally, along with transport allowance, especially for those requiring specialised transport.

The Xu Family Charity Foundation, a fund administered by the Community Foundation of Singapore, has pledged $300,000 over three years as the programme’s first community co-funder.

Explaining the need for NextGen, SDSC president Teo-Koh Sock Miang said they have been looking to bridge the gap between recreational and high-performance programmes by providing para-athletes with the right support.

However, the existing ecosystem has long presented structural barriers such as high training costs and limited access to coaching.

Teo-Koh, who is also the Singapore National Paralympic Council president, said: “For the longest time, we’ve been trying to find programme funding to allow us to identify, grow and develop the next generation of para-athletes for Singapore, so this NextGen Talent Programme is very important to us.

“It’s going to be a more sustained, structured programme where we ensure that the young potentials we identify will receive support to enable them to discover and hone their talents, so they will rise above and at some point in time represent Singapore.”

Application to join the inaugural 2026 cohort, which will accept about 20 athletes, opened on April 11 and closes on May 10.

Set to start in mid-2026, the programme will support athletes across 11 core para-sports – athletics, swimming, boccia, table tennis, shooting, badminton, goalball, archery, lawn bowls, cycling and tenpin bowling – with consideration extended to athletes in other para-sports on a case-by-case basis.

Over four years, the programme looks to enrol 80 youth para-athletes and contribute towards the 2029 Asean Para Games held in Singapore.

Chandru Vishindas, whose 13-year-old son Ryan shows keen interest in boccia, welcomed the news.

The 47-year-old is hoping that Ryan, who has cerebral palsy, can be part of the programme.

“More importantly, with his disability, whatever gives him the joy, we should just support him and we will do that,” added Chandru, who is self-employed.

Since picking up boccia when he enrolled in Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore School (East) aged five, Ryan’s love for the sport has only grown.

He began competing about three to four years ago and has progressed steadily, winning medals at the Tiger Balm National Youth Boccia Championships, including a gold in 2025.

Chandru said: “The NextGen programme would give him the right pathway to mix education and sport, and give him the encouragement and how he can perform to his best self.”

Aligned with Singapore’s Disability Sports Master Plan 2024 – which seeks to grow sports participation among persons with disabilities from 46 per cent in 2023 to 70 per cent by 2030 – the NextGen programme’s other aims include facilitating Direct School Admission pathways, placing young para-athletes on equal footing with their able-bodied peers in sport-academic routes.

When asked what success would look like, Teo-Koh said: “Success for us is not defined by medals, it’s not defined by trophies.

“It’s for those athletes we discover who can be the best they can be in their sports... It’s centred around the athlete and the families. The trophy would be a wonderful icing on the cake, but it doesn’t define the programme itself.”