| View Poll Results: Do you feel proud as a Singapore when FTW won the medal? | |||
| Yes |    
|
16 | 15.84% |
| No |   
|
85 | 84.16% |
| Voters: 101. | |||
 |
| Singapore's Feng Tianwei celebrates winning a point during her table tennis women's bronze medal singles match against Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa for The London 2012 Olympic Games at The Excel Centre in London on Aug 1, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP |
Don't get me wrong, I'm not denying that she has put in a lot of hard work, and that her heart is very much with Singapore. She has demonstrated that countless times, and I feel that as a nation we really can't thank the brave ladies of the table tennis team enough. You have to salute the courage and audacity of this woman, to go to a stage like the Olympics consistently against higher ranked opponents and taking the game to them. But perhaps you could argue that was what she was brought here to do.
As a Singaporean who was born here, her victory will never resonate with me at the same level as one won by someone who is truly one of our own, who grew up in a HDB flat, eating nasi lemak and chicken rice and playing childhood games like chapteh and hopscotch. Sure, those days are a fast fading memory of a time when Singapore was a simpler place populated by our own, where everyone knew each other because we all grew up together. But those are the days that tie me to the land of my birth, the days when Singapore was well and truly my home, not the strange country that it has become these days, where I am more likely to run into a foreigner than a fellow Singaporean on the streets in some parts of the country.
I think the poll on hardwarezone forums pretty much demonstrates the level of national pride at the victory. You can say what you want about the denizens of that forum, but they do very much represent the young heartlanders of the Singaporean population.
It might also represent the general malaise that afflicts our sporting scene, where effectiveness and efficiency is prized over passion. Sports is all about passion, because only passion will drive sportsmen to the Olympian heights through all the hurdles of rigorous training, through the injuries, through the inevitable disappointments. I once read a news article about a swimmer, which went along these lines. "She got up at 4am every day, and hit the pool when it was still cold, swimming 50 laps before the sun was up. Every single day, come rain or shine, no matter how tired she was, no matter how much her body screamed at her wanting that extra bit of sleep." I know how painful and difficult it is to get up early in the mornings to train. I do it myself, and I don't succeed every time. That is the level of dedication it takes to become an Olympian. You sacrifice everything for a single goal.
But though it is pretty obvious that team sports like soccer and basketball are some of the great national passions, Singapore has chosen to place its faith in individual sports like swimming, sailing, bowling, shooting and table tennis, for the obvious reason that they have the chance for higher medal tallies, and not team sports like soccer, basketball or volleyball. But how many Singaporeans actually do these sports consistently? Do you notice that we have far more people populating our basketball courts and soccer courts than table tennis tables or shooting ranges? Even if I were to reduce each team of basketball or soccer players to count as one, I'm still pretty sure there are more soccer teams than table tennis players in Singapore.
Just because its easier to train athletes in hothouses for certain sports so you can try to manufacture success doesn't mean that it is the right way to do it. The heart of the athletic youth in our population is simply not in sports in table tennis or shooting. Try finding me 10 Singaporeans who can understand how shooting is scored, and I don't mean that you find me the school's air rifle team.
Funding for sports in Singapore is often limited, withdrawn the moment athletes fail. But failing is pretty much part and parcel of sport. No athlete wins all the time. But the athletes here are brought up in a culture where they cannot fail, and because of that, they fail. Because if you cannot fail, you cannot learn. I'm not advocating a blank cheque, but I am advocating more faith in local sportsmen. Rather than spend all that money bringing foreigners here, invest a little more in our own, give them that extra money to fail and try again. To try again till one day they succeed and we can truly call the victory our own. Give some more time to build a base of sporting talents, rather than parachuting in foreigners to try and fill the talent gap.
It is possible for small nations to feature at international team competitions like the World Cup. I will give you the example of Uruguay, with a population of 3.2 million, much less than that of Singapore, with a GDP that is nowhere near ours. If they can produce stars like Diego Forlan, and are currently ranked #2, yes I kid you not, they are just behind Spain, and ahead of traditional footballing powerhouses like Germany, Italy and Brazil, why not Singapore? I am arguing for soccer because it is without a doubt the biggest sport here. Just look at how many people follow the BPL.
I hope that within my lifetime, I will see a Singaporean born and bred here win an Olympic medal, or a Singaporean team make it to the World Cup.