SINGAPORE — The Singapore Sports Museum and the Singapore Youth Olympic Museum were opened this evening (Oct 9) as more than 200 of Singapore’s sporting pioneers were honoured for their role in building Singapore’s sporting heritage yesterday.

Located at the new S$1.33 billion Sports Hub at Kallang, the museums will showcase some of Singapore’s most valued sporting artefacts, including the silver medal won by weightlifter Tan Howe Liang at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome — the Republic’s first Olympic medal.

Among the guests attending the launch were former hockey player Gerald Clarke, 96, and Tang Pui Wah, Singapore’s first female Olympian in athletics when she competed in the 80m and 100m hurdles at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, and Robert Tan, a disability bowls sports pioneer.

Minister of Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong, who officially opened the museums, also announced that all Singapore pioneer athletes, officials and coaches who were involved at major Games for Singapore will be offered free lifetime access to ActiveSG swimming pools and gyms islandwide.

They will also be invited to major sporting events and programmes at the Sports Hub, including next year’s South-east Asian and ASEAN Para Games.

The Singapore Sports Museum, which was previously located at Kay Siang Road, consists of six galleries that also features a tribute to the old National Stadium that was torn down in 2010, interactive touchscreens showing career highlights of household names like 1966 Asian Games men’s 100m silver medallist Canagasabai Kunalan and 1982 Asian Games swimming champion Ang Peng Siong, and the “Hear Kallang Roar” exhibition, a project supported by the irememberSG Fund for the Singapore Memory Project as part of SG50, showcasing highlights of Singapore’s national football team through the years.