A Celebration of Sport

Pit Singapore’s former king of sprints, C Kunalan, against Usain Bolt – the Jamaican holds the world record in the 100m, and 200m – and you know who will hit the tape first.

Kunalan is 67-years-old, Usain 22-years young. But for Samantha Yong, 14, it is Kunalan’s name – not Usain’s – that crops up when asked who her most inspiring track and field star is. The NUS High School student sprinter had just heard the 1966 Asian Games silver medallist’s life story and his experiences at the 1968 Mexico Olympics during a Meet Our Olympians session for the Youth Olympic Games, and she was inspired to sign up as a student helper.

Across the country, youngsters like Samantha have embraced the Youth Olympics, and some, like Erika Sim and her schoolmates from Holy Innocent’s High School, have even started their own Facebook community to share the values of the Games.

Over 3,500 athletes from 205 countries are expected on our shores for the Youth Olympics from Aug 14 to 26 next year, and this June, about 1,100 youth athletes will arrive for the inaugural Asian Youth Games (June 29 to July 7) to compete in nine sports.

The Asian Youth Games have started recruiting and training volunteers, and youngsters will likely make up a big proportion of the group.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet up with students in the last few weeks. Some, like canoeist Wang Nan Feng, will don Singapore colours in 2010, but others are happy just to be part of history. There will be sprinters, swimmers and shuttlers, but they won’t all be battling on the track or pool, but in the stands, and on the trackside, as ambassadors, volunteers or student helpers.

Olympians like Kunalan, Ang Peng Siong and Tao Li, along with the Youth Games, have inspired our youths into action. None of the teenagers I spoke to were disappointed about not representing the country, and instead, they have chosen to contribute in different ways.

The Games have ignited a spark among our young, and one can only hope that they will stay tuned for the 2014 Games and beyond.

Last month, Ho Kwang Hock, one of my team-mates in my ESPZEN Sunday League team Red Star Semangat and a former Singapore international in the 70s, was in his usual animated, bubbly self, even as we’d just lost our unbeaten start to the season.
Rarely would he pass up the opportunity to share his passion for football with us, particularly the younger ones.
That day, he told us how things are so different nowadays. Back in the day, he and his contemporaries used to play three, four matches A DAY – which is not very common for Singaporean youths today – and of how he and his national team-mates like Quah Kim Song, Samad Allapitchay and Dollah Kassim would always turn up for training at the old Jalan Besar Stadium despite knowing that they would get the hair-dryer treatment from the legendary no-nonsense coach, the late Uncle Choo Seng Quee.
He’s 53, but has the enthusiasm and fire for the sport like a teenager with plenty of energy to burn.
True, they had lesser distractions then – no internet, no shopping malls, less academic pressure, no Starbucks to name a few – but there is no denying that such was their infectious passion for sport was that their mantra was sport first, the rest can come afterwards.
The quality and quantity of sporting talent here remains today – even Peter Churchill, the Australian coach of national swim star Tao Li, recently remarked that the level of sporting talent here at the youth level is amongst the best anywhere in the world.                                                                                     But somehow it its lost when youths reach their late-teens, when they leave school.
Something like the Asian Youth Games, which takes place here from June 29 to July 7, can and should help arrest that.
It is an obvious point, but one that can get lost and forgotten admist all the talk of who wins what, who wins how many medals, who sets what records, will the facilities and venues be up to international standards etc.
What’s the point if we don’t progress as a sporting nation once the circus packs up and leaves?
Sporting activity at a mass, social level is increasing here, but the Asian Youth Games, the biggest multi-sport Games that Singapore has hosted since the 1993 SEA Games – it will see about 1,000 athletes aged 14 to 17 compete in nine sports – can help push the sporting consciousness of the nation from one of not only recreational and social, but to become truly passionate and “crazy” about sports.
Kids, hopefully, will start harbouring ambitions to become a professional athlete, and not just how many As can they score in examinations, or owning the latest video game or mobile phone. Hopefully, they will be bugging their parents to get them the latest set of boots, clubs, racket, spikes or swimsuit, hoping to be like Lionel Messi, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.
True, Singapore’s sports industry is still a work in progress, and opportunities are limited. But hey, you have to want it first to create that demand for the supply to happen. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to dream, right?
And it can help cultivate a following our local athletes and the local sports scene, instead of being a mainly Barclays Premier League-driven sports culture.
We have sporting talent comparable to anywhere in the world at the youth level.
And one big way the Asian Youth Games can be a success is to help bridge that gap where the attrition rate is lessened, and we will see more household names like Kwang Hock, Fandi, Samad, Dollah, Suria, Malek, Kim Song, Majid, Kunalan, Jiawei, Tao Li, Remy, Hosni and Peng Siong – stars we know by their first names.

The Asian Youth Games’ theme song, Asia’s Youth, Our Future, was unveiled on Friday.

It was composed by local composer/arranger Iskandar Ismail, who has worked with Dick Lee and Jacky Cheung, and the lyrics were written by Hoo Cher Liek of the Ministry of Education and the Singapore Sports Council’s Jose Raymond.

“The theme song is very powerful because it sends out the message about how, together and united, we can strive to be what we want to be, and achieve our dreams,” said Raymond, who heads the communications and IT sub-committee for the Games.

“I wrote it in 20 minutes and Hoo helped fine-tune it to make it friendlier, and to fit the music.”

Check out the song here: Asia’s Youth, Our Future.

Tags: theme song