Athletes with disabilities to have dedicated training facilities at Team Singapore’s upcoming Kallang premises

PARIS: An upcoming sports facility in Singapore will also cater to athletes with disabilities, in order to get them on the same footing as their able-bodied counterparts, said Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong.

“The new plans that we’ve announced for Kallang - with dedicated training facilities, with full boarding, with end-to-end support from sports science as well as academia - will also apply equally to disability sports,” he told CNA on Monday (Sep 2) in Paris, where the Paralympic Games are being held.

He added that his ministry has been working with the Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC) and Singapore National Paralympic Council in the planning and design of the new facility which will be the new “home” for Team Singapore. 

“They will have a space there that they can call their own, right next to every other athlete,” said Mr Tong.

Treating Olympians and Paralympians equally also applies to public recognition and coverage of their events, he added. 

A centralised and purpose-built facility for disability sports in Kallang will enable training to be more accessible for para-athletes, said SDSC executive director Kelly Fan.

Such a facility can help them train more frequently and without accessibility issues in the way, and with the assurance that their sporting needs are catered for, she added.

She noted that many disability sports require storage for specialised equipment.

“Athletes in unique sports like goalball and boccia, which require a silent environment and uncommon court lines, can also benefit from the purpose-built facility,” she said in response to queries from CNA.

Boccia, which means to bowl in Italian, is a target ball sport played by athletes in wheelchairs. Goalball relies almost