Encouraging para athletes to train hard for the ASEAN Para Games

Prof Teo-Koh Sock Miang, President of SDSC & Chairman of SNPC

SAPGOC Steering Committee members,

Our coaches, Para athletes,

Ladies and gentlemen,

1. A very good morning to all of you. Very good to see all of you here and so much energy in this room.
   

2. We have seven more months to go to the Para Games. Are you all excited? You know that this is the first time we are hosting the Para Games in Singapore so it's going to be a historic games. Everyone is working hard to make the Games happen. So I want to thank everyone in the SDSC, Prof Teo-Koh Sock Miang and her team, and the SNPC, all our volunteers who are here. We have been gearing them up, and there are many caregivers and parents who are here as well. So, thank you for helping us prepare for the Para Games. Let's give a big hand of applause to thank all of them. Everyone has been working very hard to make this happen.

Doubling our contingent size at APG 2015

3. Of course the most important people to make the Games successful is all of you – our para athletes. You are the most important people in the Games itself. And as Sock said just now, we have made a special effort, this year, to try and enlarge and increase our participation base. We want as many people as possible to participate in the Para Games this year. Last Para Games in Myanmar we only took part in about five sports and we had about 50 athletes. And we thought that we should try to double the number of athletes and take part in as many sports as possible, potentially even 15, so triple the number of sports. And now, we have, I think, around this room, 163 of you, who are selected to be part of the training squad.

4. Training squad doesn't mean you can make it to the Para Games you must still qualify. So training squad means it is automatic, you know. Just because you are here doesn't mean you can go to the Para Games. But you must qualify because there is a threshold. So you must train hard and if all of you train hard, all of you can qualify, and I certainly want all of you to qualify. But you must make the effort to qualify and be part of the Para Games. So with this 150 plus training in the training squad, I think we have a good chance to get 100 athletes eventually for the Para Games, if not more. And as you have heard just now, we have some sports which are first time, first time that we ever have a Team Singapore representation in these sports. We have a goalball team. I think we have the archery team. We have two athletes in powerlifting – Melvin and Kalai. Well done. And we also have chess.

5. So, we have many athletes who are first timers and also first time representing Singapore in the sport which we never participated before and I think that is wonderful to see. We also have veteran para athletes, people like Theresa, Pin Xiu, Nurul, who is training in Australia now. These are people who have taken part in the Para Games before – even in the Paralympics, and they are going to be again joining us as Team Singapore for the para Games this year. So, I think there will be a lot of excitement if we see so many para athletes training hard, preparing for the Games.

Celebrating SG50 with the message of inclusiveness

6. And as I said, this year will be a once in a lifetime opportunity for all of you. Because it's the first time we are hosting the Para Games in Singapore and this Para Games is also happening during our SG50 celebration. We celebrate Singapore's 50th birthday this year, and the Para Games will be the last major event to wrap up the whole year-long celebration for SG50. So, you can be part of the final birthday present for Singapore's 50th birthday.

7. We will of course host the ASEAN Para Games again, maybe 20 over years later, because the Games will rotate from ASEAN country to ASEAN country, so every two years, we'll host. So 20 years later, there will be another ASEAN Para Games in Singapore but it will not be the same. It will not be the 50th anniversary. It will not be the first time anymore and some of you may be older by then. So this year will be the once in a lifetime opportunity for you to take part in something truly special.

8. So I encourage all of you, like I said just now, you are not guaranteed yet just because you are here doesn't mean you are guaranteed a place in the ASEAN Para Games squad. You have to earn your place in the squad and that means you have to train hard and make the selection standards. And I hope all of you do so, and be part of the ASEAN Para Games team and then take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity to make Singapore proud.

9. We look forward to all of your performances. I'm sure it will be very inspiring because each one of you has an inspiring story to tell, of how you have overcome adversity, how you are doing extraordinary things in your lives, and I'm sure that your performances at the Para Games will be inspiring. It will inspire many more people with disabilities to want to come forward and try out sports like you have done. And I hope that it will inspire many more Singaporeans around us to recognise and appreciate the value of people with disabilities, to want to break down barriers in our society, and make inclusion for everyone a way of life in Singapore.

10. So that's the legacy we hope to achieve for the Para Games. And that is what I think all of you can help us achieve with your performances. So we look forward to the Para Games in December. We look forward to seeing all of you there and I really hope that we can cheer for every one of you in this room in December for the Para Games. Thank you very much and have a very good afternoon.