Government’s support for Team Singapore athletes

978. Mr Alex Yam Ziming: To ask the Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) whether the Ministry will engage the Singapore National Olympic Council to review the Major Games Award Programme (MAP) to consider recognising SEA Games Silver and Bronze medallists to motivate and retain emerging athletes; and (b) whether the Ministry can support alternative non-monetary or tiered forms of recognition beyond the MAP, taking into account the SEA Games’ biennial nature and competitive standards.

1052. Ms Valerie Lee: To ask the Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) how the Government reviews and enhances the Sports Excellence awards to ensure that they sufficiently support elite athletes’ training, welfare and long-term development; and (b) whether adjustments are needed to better enable Singapore athletes to achieve sustained success and international recognition in world sports. 

1127. Ms Elysa Chen: To ask the Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) what is the breakdown of funding allocated to national athletes competing in the SEA Games 2025 across different sports; and (b) how does this compare to funding levels over the past five years. 

Response:

1. Our Team Singapore athletes have done well, as seen in the last few editions of the Olympics, Paralympics, Asian Games, Asian Para Games, and most recently at the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in Thailand. We are all very proud of them.

2. The Government invests in a few areas to build up a strong High-Performance Sport (HPS) system to nurture all our athletes to achieve their fullest sporting potential.

3. First, we have direct financial and programme support to athletes through our suite of Sport Excellence (spex) programmes, and we design such support to be bespoke and holistic, based on our athletes' needs during different stages of their sporting career. Today, we support more than 1,500 carded athletes across 55 sports, compared to 272 athletes across 14 sports when we first started spex in 1993. This is a 450% increase in the number of athletes supported and 300% increase in the number of sports supported.

4. We routinely review and enhance our spex programmes. For example, in recent years, we introduced the spexPotential programme in 2024, to enhance support for younger athletes making the transition to higher levels of sporting success. Last year, we awarded our inaugural batch of spexEducation Undergraduate Scholarships. This provides greater assurance to our athletes' academic aspirations. We also introduced Central Provident Fund (CPF) top-ups for spexScholars, bolstering their finances as they focus single-mindedly on the pursuit of excellence in their sport.

5. Second, systemic investment in our High Performance Sport (HPS) ecosystem. We invest in coaching development, sport science and sport medicine, and athlete life management to give our National Sports Associations (NSAs), coaches and athletes the competitive edge that they need.

6. The support that each athlete or sport receives is calibrated according to their needs, performance and potential to do well. The support is also reviewed annually to ensure adequacy and accountability, and we will continue to enhance them as needed.

7. Third, we will continue to invest in the hardware, through the new home of Team Singapore, which will bring together the Singapore Sports School (SSP) to Kallang and integrate all elements of the HPS ecosystem under one roof – sport science and sport medicine support, national training centres and sport administration.

8. To build a holistic HPS system, the Government recognises that recognition and rewards play a complementary role in making sure that our athletes feel supported and they can go the extra mile.

9. Sport Singapore (SportSG) administers the Singapore Sport Hall of Fame, which celebrates the exceptional achievements and contributions of Singapore's sporting heroes. The Singapore Sport Hall of Fame now includes a new category for sport leaders, and recognises the achievements of athletes beyond medals, including contributions back to the sport and to the community.

10. But it takes a whole Singapore village to journey with, to support and to develop our athletes. We greatly appreciate efforts by the community and Singaporeans to step forward to recognise and to support our athletes in all forms.

11. One such example is the Major Games Award Programme (MAP). It is a private award scheme that is managed by the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) and funded by their sponsors. SNOC reviews the scheme periodically and decides on the categories of awarded medallists and the monetary rewards offered to each of them, in consultation with sponsors.

12. The MAP award structure also takes into account the level of competition and the frequency of the Major Games.  The Olympic, Commonwealth and Asian Games, for example, they have more competitive fields, take place every four years while SEA Games takes place every two. We will take to heart Mr Yam's suggestion, and request for it to be considered in their review. At the same time, we also encourage more corporates and sponsors to come forward to support our athletes and contribute to the MAP.

13. Beyond MAP, SNOC, the Singapore National Paralympic Council and the NSAs recognise our athletes' achievements in other ways, such as SNOC's annual Singapore Sports Awards, SNPC's Athletes Achievements Awards, and the different NSAs' awards nights and dinners.

14. The Government will continue to review our policies and programmes for our athletes and for the HPS ecosystem so that we can nurture every athlete to achieve their fullest sporting potential.