Government’s support for athletes with different developmental pathways

*1282. Assoc Prof Kenneth Goh: To ask the Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) how programmes such as the Sport Excellence Potential (spexPotential) account for sports where athletes peak later, including how long athletes can be supported before reaching senior representation; and (b) how the Ministry ensures such athletes are not disadvantaged by early progression benchmarks.

1. Sir, in high performance sports, every sport, and for that matter, every individual is different, including the ages at which athletes peak their performance, and therefore, at what age and for how long they must be supported.

2. Because our aim is to make sure every athlete fulfils their fullest sporting potential, Sport Singapore’s High Performance Sport Institute (HPSI) designs our support for athletes based on their current performance and assessed potential, rather than solely age. And we do not place a limit on how long athletes can be supported as long as they meet performance and potential criteria.

3. Our Sport Excellence (spex) framework provides comprehensive support for athletes across different stages of their sporting journey. It seeks to retain athletes early in the developmental pathway and also, long enough for them to realise their aspirations and achieve their full potential.

4. The spexPotential programme, in particular, provides targeted financial and programmatic support to athletes with the potential to achieve gold medal success at the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games). It bridges our athletes’ journey towards the spexScholarship programme and sporting success at the Asian and World levels.

5. The spexPotential programme also supports athletes based on their developmental stage of their sport’s high performance pathway, and it applies to athletes of all ages.

6. The framework of spex programmes – spexScholarship, spexPotential and spexCarding – also allows us to calibrate the level of support during various stages of an athlete’s sporting career. This means athletes will be supported throughout their sporting journey, even if their performance fluctuates from time to time.

7. The spex framework also supports late bloomers or athletes who switch sports. For example, we would be familiar with Theresa Goh, our Paralympian swimmer. She is also a late bloomer for para shooting. She took up the sport recently and won a gold and a silver at the recent ASEAN Para Games. As a swimmer, she was supported by spexCarding from when she was 14 years old and was awarded the spexScholarship when she was 27 years old. Now as a shooter, she is supported by spexCarding at 38 years old.

8. Once again, our aim is really to help every athlete achieve their fullest sporting potential. To do so, we work very closely with our partners, especially the National Sports Associations (NSAs) to develop our athletes. Together, we establish multiple pathways to account for differences in athletes’ development pathways and the characteristics of each sport, so that we can really support all our athletes.