Commentary: Singapore bets on home ground advantage at SEA Games 2029

SINGAPORE: The Singapore government has begun to roll out support for Team Singapore athletes with sights set firmly on a superlative performance at future SEA Games. 

Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo said at the end of April that  another 200 Singapore athletes across a wider range of sports will be supported with full-time equivalent training as part of preparations for the 2029 SEA Games.

This adds on to the current 165 athletes already on full-time training equivalent support under Sport Singapore’s Sport Excellence programmes.

Singapore will host the SEA Games in 2029, still some three years away. In the interim, athletes in the region will have to contest the next edition of the biennial games in Malaysia in 2027.

At the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore, our athletes delivered the country’s best SEA Games performance to date, coming in second at the final medal tally .

As Team Singapore’s chef de mission in 2015, I remember clearly the euphoria and pride felt across the nation as we placed ahead of other regional sporting powerhouses. But I also recall feeling a mild pang of regret.

After all, most other host nations of the SEA Games often leverage the home-ground advantage to take aim at the top step of the podium. As a former national athlete, it was always clear to me that our regional rivals often invested relatively more into sports, which made it challenging for us to dominate the regional games as we would have liked to.

T he government’s preparations for the 2029 Games are heartening for the sports community for a number of reasons.

For one, the full-time equivalent training support is meant to provide what an athlete needs to be able to commit fully to his or her sport,