Singapore Swimming targets a place in relay final at 2020 Tokyo Olympics

SINGAPORE – Fresh off Joseph Schooling’s landmark gold-medal triumph at the Rio Olympic Games, and a record medal haul at the 2015 South-east Asian Games, the Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) on Tuesday (March 7) unveiled its high performance plan that is geared towards taking the sport – and its athletes – to the next stage.  

With the SSA now setting its sights on getting a relay team to reach the final at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, its president Lee Kok Choy said that the national sports association needs to up its game – and increase its athlete base – in order to achieve its ambitious goal in three years’ time. 

Success at the world stage will mean that the Republic needs some 200 swimmers training at the highest level and intensity, a huge jump from the National Training Centre’s (NTC) current roster of 26, said Lee.

To ensure a continuous pipeline of young swimmers coming through the ranks, the national sports association’s high performance plan will work on five key areas: participation, athlete development pathways, coaching education, club development, training and development.

“Joseph and Zheng Wen’s success at the Olympics, as well as the SEA Games, is a journey of many years of programmes and contributions from the leaders of the SSA,” said Lee. 

“We have to build on this, and we want sustainable success. If we don’t have a larger number of athletes, we will have good years, and dry years. We need to have a constant stream of talent.

The SSA is aiming to build up a squad of over 20 swimmers for its men’s and women’s 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle, and 4x100m medley relay teams, as Lee added: “We definitely want a higher level of participation at the Asian Games, World Championships, and Olympic Games. Our philosophy of (focusing on) relays will bring more depth as a country. 

“What we’ve elected to do is strategic. Swimming is a very individual sport, we can concentrate resources on one athlete and still get quite a bit of payback but that is not as sustainable…it’s not just one shot at glory.”

The SSA will hire a new national head coach and performance director to oversee the association’s efforts to improve the quality of coaches here. 

The new director’s role will focus on building a strategic framework for clubs to develop their coaches and swimmers, improving the quality of coaches and swimmers from beginner to elite levels, and knowledge sharing of best practices and information. 

The national head coach and performance director will also work with and mentor NTC head coach Gary Tan and technical director Sonya Porter, and help refine the NTC’s training programme and athlete selection process. 

The SSA also plans to hire an assistant coach for the NTC, with both posts expected to be filled by the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games in August. 

Private swimming clubs and schools will also be able to reap financial rewards for their efforts in producing elite swimmers. 

The SSA will introduce two partnership schemes – the Podium Performance Programme and Club Excellence Programme – to reward affiliate clubs with grants and other privileges for their work in developing a pipeline of young athletes for the nation. 

The Podium Performance Programme  will categorise clubs into Gold, Silver, and Bronze classifications based on the number of national athletes they produce, with clubs receiving different levels of benefits, high performance grants, and opportunities to participate in roundtable discussions and talks with visiting experts based on their classification. 

The Club Excellence Programme will see the SSA working more closely with its affiliate clubs on specific high performance plans for their athletes, and participation is voluntary.

“Sometimes there has been misperception that we are not interested to work with clubs, and that’s not true,” said Lee.  

“We are very privileged to have a club infrastructure that’s very active and vibrant.  We want to support them, and we want to collaborate with them. 

“The NTC continues to be the ideal model and training environment for athletes. We strive to replicate the rigour of NTC training at club level. We will continue to upgrade and level up capabilities to build higher level athletes. We will support, and encourage others (clubs) to build their own level of excellence in the direction of the NTC.”

Apart from Schooling’s gold medal win, 2016 was a fruitful year for the SSA. The association saw a 20 per cent increase in participation in time trial and national age-group competitions, and 17 long course records - out of 38 - broken in the pool.

Lee is hopeful that the SSA high performance plan will be able to build on that momentum. 

“SSA’s high performance plan paves the way for greater successes in the long term, enabling us to increase not only participation, but also medal targets at the upcoming SEA Games, Asian Games and Tokyo 2020 Olympics,” he said. “Through the development plan, we wish to further strengthen Singapore’s position as an aquatic nation.”