Celebrating the achievements of our para athletes

Parliamentary colleague Sam Tan

Assoc. Prof. Teo-Koh Sock Miang, Chairman of SNPC and President of SDSC

Athletes, coaches and officials,

Friends and families,

1. I am very happy to join you for the Athletes' Achievement Award ceremony for our para athletes.

Congratulating Team Singapore

2. Tonight, we honour what you have done at last year's Asian Para Games in Incheon where you flew our flag high and you did all of us proud. In Incheon, we had athletes competing across 11 sports and more than half of the contingent were debutants. They were there for the first time in the Asian Para Games. Despite their inexperience, or the relative inexperience, our team did very well and they improved on Team Singapore's performance at the first Asian Para Games. We brought home 6 medals better than the last one. So congratulations and well done to all our athletes!

3. I also want to echo what Sock Miang said just now about how these awards, and all that we have done would not have been possible without our partners here. So I thank our sponsors and partners especially the Tote board and particularly, I want to acknowledge the presence of our coaches, our officials, the caregivers and volunteers who support our athletes, who played very important roles and of course all the families and friends who are here because all of you are the ones who are behind our athletes, supporting them, allowing them to pursue their aspirations and dreams in sports. All of you have played a big part in our athletes' success. Thank you very much and let me invite the athletes now to give a big hand to all your supporters.

4. We had many inspiring stories from the Asian Para Games and from what our athletes have done in Incheon. And it was particularly good to see how there was such positive partnership especially between the more experienced athletes and those that were competing for the first time. For example, one debutant is para sailor Yap Qian Yin. She has been sailing for 4 years, and she partnered three-time Paralympian Jovin Tan in the Hansa 303 double-handed sailing event.

5. In fact, they have only been training for slightly more than a year, but that did not stop them from working very hard and certainly did not stop them for pushing for success. So they dominated their competition, they were hungry to excel, and they won seven out of their nine races and eventually they won Singapore's first ever Gold medal at the Asian Para Games.

6. We also have our para bowlers who are here - Robert Ong, Anuar Saaid, Kalvin Tay and Ismail Hussain. They too wanted to excel. And they too were a mix of veterans and first timers at the Asian Para Games. Three of them Robert, Anuar and Kalvin were competing for the first time at the Para Games. Ismail had competed at the Para Games before so he had some experience. And they were up against very strong opponents. There were very strong bowlers like the Koreans and Malaysians. But our bowlers were not intimidated. They kept their cool. They said that their coaches kept reassuring them not to be intimidated by their opponents and focus on playing the game. This they did because they eventually clinched podium finishes in the doubles and trios events. So well done to our bowlers as well.

7. Of course, competing at the Games goes beyond medal wins. It is about training hard and overcoming hurdles, to meet personal aspirations, and to bring glory to Singapore.

8. Some had to compete and play through the pain barrier. For example, I learnt that swimmer Theresa Goh had sustained a shoulder injury before the Games. But she fought the pain and she continued the competition throughout all her events, and she eventually clinched three medals – a silver and two bronzes. And I am glad that she has recovered from surgery and she will be back in training soon. Well done Theresa!

9. Some others had to deal with unexpected curve balls that were thrown at them. For example, sailor Aaron Per was preparing to compete with a partner who eventually had to withdraw. So quite unfortunate. And so he had a new partnership with Ng Xiuzhen and they only managed to train for about a week before the competition. A very short time. But they put on a very gutsy performance and they finished in the 4th place overall. I think that's a tremendous achievement under the circumstances and it was a triumph against very tough odds. Well done to the team!

10. And I want to highlight our cerebral palsy (CP) football team. I saw them play at the ASEAN Para Games in Myanmar earlier. They played with tremendous spirit. They got a wild card entry into the Games in Incheon, and I'm sure it has provided them with good experience and I can see that the team under Coach Zainudeen, who built the team from scratch. The team is now growing from strength to strength, so we will certainly be looking forward when they play against our neighbours again at the coming ASEAN Para Games in Singapore.

11. For the first time in Singapore's history, we are hosting the ASEAN Para Games. This is home ground so we look forward to seeing all our para athletes competing on home ground with the whole of Singapore watching you and cheering you on. And I think that is something that we all look forward to.

Support for para athletes

12. Last year, I set a goal for us to double our contingent size for the coming ASEAN Para Games, because it's special, it is home ground, we should send a big contingent. So in the past we have sent a contingent of about 50, I think we aim for 100 for this ASEAN Para Games and it will be our biggest ever representation at the Para Games. And I'm happy to say that we are on track to achieving this goal. With the support of Sport Singapore, the SDSC is making good progress to increase our pool of athletes across the different sports.

13. Some of these sports are quite new for Singapore. We have sports like goalball, powerlifting, chess and 5-a-side football where in the past we did not have any teams. So we are now in the process of building up the teams for these sports. And I hope that the achievements of our para athletes here tonight can inspire even more people to come forward, and try out these sports and perhaps some of them may even be good enough to represent Singapore one day, and if they are really good maybe they may even be able to represent Singapore in December for the ASEAN Para Games.

14. The Government will do its part to invest more in disability sports. We are already doing more. We are investing more in sports generally, and particularly in disability sports. We have a High Performance Sporting system. We have been providing more support for our athletes who are representing Singapore. And in our High Performance Sporting system, we do not differentiate between an able-bodied athlete or an athlete with disability – we treat all the same and if we have aspirations to compete at a high level whether it is ASEAN, Asian, Commonwealth, Paralympics or Olympics, we provide you with the support to do full-time training. And that is what we have been doing with the Sports Excellence scholarship, the SpEx scholarship. We have been providing more support for our athletes, both para athletes and able-bodied athletes to get more stipends so that they can go into full-time training to pursue their dreams in sports. And I am glad that now we have about one in seven of our SpEx scholars are para athletes and we encourage more of you, if you want to continue to pursue your sports full-time, if you want to go even higher whether it is for the ASEAN Para Games this year or if you want to go even higher at the Asian level or international level, train hard and we will give you support all the way.

15. And the support is not just in financial support. That's certainly is important to provide you with support for your training, for your equipment but it is also about providing support in other aspects. Moral support and encouragement is important but there are also other ways we can provide support. For example we are looking at support in research and capability development. The Singapore Sports Institute (SSI) is now working with various research units in our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs), our polytechnics and universities. And they are trying to find ways in which we can provide specialised support for our para athletes, particularly in terms of research and capabilities so that we can customise their sports equipment, we can provide better support for our athletes and raise their performance standards. And one example is our para athlete Nurul Taha. She plays boccia. She has muscular cerebral palsy so she sits on a wheelchair with her ramp. So we are working with Nanyang Polytechnic in a partnership to better design a ramp suited to her needs, customised for her and hopefully with that it will enhance her performance in future as well. So these are the things that we are doing to promote disability sports and to prepare for the ASEAN Para Games.

Building a legacy for disability sports

16. But the work that we are doing does not end with the ASEAN Para Games.

17. Our long-term goal is for sports to be without boundaries. We want sports to be inclusive, and we want to provide opportunities for Singaporeans of all abilities to participate in sports. And ultimately, through participation in sports, we want to build an inclusive society that recognises and appreciates the ability of every individual and where everyone can reach his or her full potential. This is what we hope to achieve from the ASEAN Para Games. We want to achieve a longer legacy. We want the Games to be a catalyst for us to achieve something enduring in Singapore.

18. And so I have asked my Minister of State Mr Sam Tan to chair an inter-agency committee to see how we can build such a lasting legacy for disability sports beyond the Games.

19. The committee will look at how we can continue to break down barriers and how we can continue to expand opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in sports.

20. And this will not be just a Government effort. We want to draw on the expertise and experience of the people, private and public sectors to chart out a holistic plan to take participation in disability sports in Singapore to a higher level. So for all of you who have ideas, feedback and suggestions, let us know so that we can map out a proper master plan that can chart our way forward for disability sports in Singapore.

21. For our para athletes, I think all of you will be excellent ambassadors for this exercise because you are our best advocates in this effort towards building an inclusive society through sports. So as you are intensely preparing for the ASEAN Para Games, I hope even in the midst of your training, you will also keep in mind how we can continue to inspire those around you to embrace the power of sports. All of you have shown that you can make a difference. Your stories are inspiring to many Singaporeans and I believe if we can continue to profile your stories, let Singaporeans see how hard you train and how you are doing all of us proud, many people will truly be inspired and we can get even more Singaporeans to rally behind para sports. So if we continue to work together, I believe we can achieve such a legacy for Singapore. We can involve even more Singaporeans to support our athletes in their endeavours, and we can continue to provide opportunities for everyone to live better through sports. Thank you very much and have a very pleasant evening ahead.