Singapore tennis player Sarah Pang picked for distinguished US sports mentorship programme

SINGAPORE – When tennis player Sarah Pang received an e-mail offer to enrol in the United States’ prestigious Global Sports Mentorship Programme (GSMP) on July 27, she was overcome with a wave of emotions.

“I feel very honoured to be chosen for such a prestigious global programme,” the Singaporean, 38, said. “This year, only 17 women made the cut, and when I look at their profiles, wow, these women are serious heavyweights in their own fields. It is such a privilege to share this space with them.”

GSMP, a nomination-only annual programme, was set up under the US Department of State’s sports diplomacy umbrella to promote inclusion and gender equality.

Its alumnae include prominent female journalists, International Olympic Committee (IOC) lawyers and CEOs of international sporting organisations. Then Straits Times sports reporter May Chen was selected in 2014.

Pang, who was nominated by the US Embassy in Singapore, did not take up the offer immediately as she had initially intended to play in several International Tennis Federation competitions from October to November.

“I thought very long and hard about this, because the dates of this mentorship programme was the exact same period that I had planned to peak for this year,” she said.

But, after she reached out to those from the 2022 cohort, including Blerina Imeri, the head of legal department at the Olympic Committee of Kosovo, her mind was made up.

She said: “She, among others, all emphasised the same thing. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I was very lucky to have been selected.”

For five weeks from Oct 14, the delegates, from countries like Cape Verde, Bolivia and Fiji, will be paired with American sports executives across the US.

Pang will be mentored by two senior directors of the United States Tennis Association (USTA), Joanne Wallen and Renee Marques.

Wallen has agreed to give her access to USTA’s state-of-the-art facilities in Orlando, Florida, allowing Pang to train alongside some of the top US junior players in preparation for her 2024 season.

While most athletes at her age would be contemplating retirement, Pang intends to keep playing for least the next two years.

“The reality is that the level of sports science today enables athletes to high-perform well into their 40s. Singapore’s thought culture needs to stay abreast with that reality, so we enable what our athletes can achieve,” said Pang, who debuted on the Women’s Tennis Association rankings in 2019.

She hopes to introduce an initiative which allows her to transfer her experience as a high-performance athlete to the corporate and education sectors.

She added: “GSMP will be the start of a foray into how the business of sport works.

“It’s a great stepping stone towards a building a wider skill set I seek, to help mature sport into something even more relevant to Singapore’s future economy.”