SSA head: Challenge is to sustain progress over time

Singapore's emerging pool of swimmers has impressed over recent years, proving their worth against more experienced competitors at major Games.

While Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) president Lee Kok Choy believes there has always been a steady stream of promising youths, he acknowledged that the challenge was embedded in sustaining their progress over the years.

He said: "If you rank them among the same age in the world, they could be easily in the top 20. The real challenge we have is how to maintain that level of momentum to become senior swimmers overtime."

Lee was speaking after SSA's Annual General Meeting last night, where he and six other members of his team returned unopposed.

Secretary-General Oon Jin Teik, vice-president for partnerships Jose Raymond and vice-president for water polo Samson Tan stepped down from their posts, while Alvin Hang, Dominic Soh and Kelvin Yew joined the executive committee.

However, Lee revealed that his committee is implementing several measures to overcome this problem, starting with a focus on building up coaching capabilities across the island.

Sports

I took a spinning class and ended up at A&E

May 08, 2022

Related Stories

Hill wary of past final race controversies

Third time’s the charm for world No. 2 paddler Sun Yingsha

Key figure skating event hit by Covid fears

The SSA aims not only to strengthen coaching in the National Training Centre (NTC) but also at a club level.

Lee said: "Every athlete has different strides and we may not have the solution to meet the needs in the NTC, so we want to grow the clubs to provide such an environment to feed them to the NTC."

Apart from coaching, the SSA will work to provide its budding swimmers with opportunities to develop their talents through exposure in overseas competitions and with the aid of sports science.

Lee believes that his five-year plan to plant the nation's swimmers among the top four in the region is on track and he foresees that all sports across aquatics will be able to meet the mark by 2028.

He said : "We look very long into the horizon. For us to achieve improvements in achievements, it takes two Olympic cycles but, by 2028, I believe we'll be comfortably in the top-four position throughout aquatics."