Singapoor?

I remain ambivalent (not quite opposed towards, though probably i’m inching more and more towards that stance) towards Singapore’s purported Olympic medal prospects, due to the fact that virtually all of the realistic chances S’pore has of getting a medal basically lie with people who have been recruited from overseas to join ‘Team Singapore’. I’m definitely not being xenophobic or ultra-nationalistic or anything of that sort – if these people are able to get chances to perform well on the international stage that would possibly have been denied them otherwise, and help to encourage the further development of local sporting talent, then by all means go ahead. My issue is with the way in which S’pore has really been relying far too much on them in order to, and here may i borrow a cheesy slogan form the 2010 youth Olympics, ‘blaze the trail’ in the international sporting arena. Yes there’s all that talk of how we are an immigrant society, but really the makeup of the S’pore team in terms of whether their nationality was a result of birth or acquisition far from mirrors what it is on a national level. I won’t go as far as to call them sporting mercenaries, although definitely that term came to my mind with reference to them…

But even with that aside, i do pity these foreign-born Singaporeans, who have unfortunately become victims of the apparent national thirst for Olympic glory – in the sense that unrealistic expectations of a medal have become pinned on them. Of course, it’s hardly the kind of pressure that perhaps China places on its athletes, but still i can’t help but think that it is not constructive in any way… Take Tao Li as a case in point – she slices more than a second off her personal best in the 100m Butterfly, setting a new Asian record in the process, and for all that effort following a respectable 5^th place in the final this is the thanks she gets – as someone who has “dashed the country’s hopes” and “failing to top” her previous record in the final. Surely she deserves far more credit than that! It’s ironic that she’s treated this way precisely because she performed so well in earlier rounds.

Of course, the good ‘ol local press doesn’t exempt the S’porean-born athletes from their unrealistic expectations either. Today’s ST gave its report on the S’pore swimmers – and (apart from Tao Li) save a mention of one of them breaking the national record, everything else was about how they failed to make the semi-finals/finals. Maybe if the reporters had done their homework they would have realized how those who do make it to that stage are really in a different class to begin with, and have at least appeared to (cos i’m sure they are) acknowledge their effort.

And in any case, i pity the women’s table tennis team (and hey, guess where all of them were born?) should they not be able to get a medal. And if they do, i won’t be too excited either…