Kelvin Teo
YOG Mascot Lyo dreams of someday representing Singapore in international basketball tournaments.
The ongoing Youth Olympics Games (YOG) in Singapore has its fair share of ups and downs. The downs being the inconvenience of road traffic in which vehicles other than the YOG-allocated vehicles were barred from lanes dedicated to the latter.
There was also a hoo-hah about the quality of food served to volunteers which made its way online and into our mainstream media, which prompted organizers to take action, and they did. Moving on to the brighter side, we have youths doing Singapore proud by finishing in medal positions, which is cause for celebrations amongst those whom are rooting for the former.
The main goal as articulated by the Singapore YOG organizing committee is to “inspire youth around the world to embrace, embody and express the Olympic values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect. It will create a lasting sports, culture and education legacy for Singapore and youths from around the world, as well as enhance and elevate the sporting culture locally and regionally.”
Being an Olympian
The Ministry of Education has rallied enthusiastically to support this unique YOG occasion. The latter together with its partners organized Singapore 2010 Friendship Camp and the Singapore 2010 Youth Sports Conference that is supposed to inspire students to adopt Olympic values which comprises hope, excellence, respect, harmony and friendship. In abstract terms, the Olympics values are not much different from the values we learn during our civics and moral classes. However, as the saying goes:”Learning it in theory is one thing, applying it in real world is another.”
Allow me to illustrate with an example from my childhood days. In primary school, my class had an excellent civic and moral education teacher. An immaculate man with a rich vein of experience which includes surviving the Japanese occupation, he used to exhort us to be respectful of others in any situation, including that on the sports field, and to conduct ourselves in a fair manner that benefit others. Yet, in one of the soccer games I played, one chap had an idea about how to divide the group of players into two teams – chinese versus malays.
My class was unique in the sense that we had equal racial representation. I didn’t want to alienate my class or do not want to look unsporting in front of my classmates from other ethnic groups, so I ended up joining my classmates in the ‘malay’ team. During that game itself, our team went a goal down, because our opponent’s striker controlled the ball with a blatant hand-ball. On the other end, I faced a similar situation, where I was making a split-second decision on whether I should do the same blatant handball and put my team back on levels terms. Whether I handled the ball or not is your guess!
However, this situation illustrates the point I am going to make. What we learn in theory including Olympic values is usually in black and white. However, what is experienced on the sports field usually comes in shades of grey. For instance, if we suffer a sporting injustice because the opponent violates the rules and took advantage, should we do the same and get back on level terms a la tit for tat or should we just grit our teeth and compete like a true Olympian in every sense of the word?
As it is, Olympic spirit in the real sporting sense can only be picked up in the sports field. It is only by undergoing the highs and low of competition, the defeats and victories that we will become wiser in our conduct. Which means it is rather unfortunate that non-sporting students will unlikely be able to have a true practical lesson in Olympic values.
However, imbuing students with theoretical knowledge on Olympic ideals isn’t a bad thing either. If it takes the YOG for the MOE to be pro-active in imbuing our students with the spirit (theoretically I must emphasize), by all means proceed ahead. Better having a student with theoretical knowledge on Olympic values than one with neither theoretical knowledge nor practical application. Saying that, our educators shouldn’t be expecting our students to be applicants of Olympic values overnight. That can only happen through exposure to the sporting arena, which not all have the opportunity to experience.
What we can learn from sports
In a bid to usher in the season for the current YOG, MOE was an avid partner in organizing relevant programmes relevant to the event. The pertinent question is whether we need a YOG to kickstart an interest. The answer is perhaps no.
During my secondary school days, it was very common to have guests coming to share with us their life-changing experiences. We happened to have a talk given by a group of reformed drug addicts hailing from a halfway house in Seletar known as The Hiding Place. They spoke about how their lives were reformed, and how soccer was a past-time in which they could channel their positive energies into instead of doing drugs. They even invited us for a kick-about game with them.
Another good alternative is engagement with paralympic athletes. As a medical student, I was taught that handicapped people, especially the Deaf, do not want the society to treat them as handicaps, they long for the day when they are seen as equal to normal people like the majority of us. Immersing with paralympic athletes will give us a rich perspective about how these people triumph over the odds to compete despite their disability.
Interacting with the downtrodden or the disabled members of our society will impart the value of empathy to our students; they will do well to remember that as society progresses, we cannot leave those who are less fortunate or stigmatized by their past actions behind. It is definitely an effective alternative to impart the Olympic value of friendship to our students – that friendship should also be extended to those on the fringes of our society and other unfortunate members who suffered a disability.
Engaging the public
Prominent members of our government have been exhorting the public to be as supportive as much as possible for the YOG. Yet, an online poll of 6400 samples indicated that an overwhelming 88% aren’t interested in the YOG. Such an uninterested response is not surprising. The reasons are the same as why people are not interested in the World Youth Cup as compared with the World Cup. It is a global phenomenon – hardly anyone pays attention to youth competitions; everyone is more interested in seeing established sports stars competing.
As for the second reason, let’s get started on a rhetorical question – which event will generate more public enthusiasm – a three-game series against our neighbours up north or the YOG? No prizes for guessing, but most will go with the three-game series. It may sound counter-intuitive at first for a sporting rivalry between two nations to be a even bigger event an international competition, but it is not at all.
The development of public enthusiasm takes time, and its impact is huge – it can be part and parcel of our national ethos. The causeway rivalry with our northern neighbour has been happening for decades, and whatever transpired in those events has entered national folklore arguably. In fact, sporting rivalries have the ingredients to generate public enthusiasm, simply because it has a differentiating factor that identifies who we are, and unites us in an “us versus them” mindset.
This pretty much explains its mobilizing effect, where we band together as one against our rivals. It is not surprising if our seasoned local fans may know the stars from the Malaysian team who have been the bane of our national team like Moktar Dahari and Towkay Soh. I wouldn’t be surprised if seasoned fans on the other side of the causeway are equally familiar with Singapore’s Quah Kim Song, Dollah Kassim and others. The YOG on the other hand is a nascent event, the first time a youth Olympics is being organized. It doesn’t have the emotional-laden history as the causeway rivalry. This combined with the general trend that no one is interested in youth competitions meant the lack of public enthusiasm.
Youth development
The third reason for the lack of enthusiasm could be attributed to the lack of sporting culture here in Singapore. Nurturing a sporting culture requires multiple approaches. One such approach is to encourage public participation in sports events and competitions, albeit the Singapore way. What I mean by the Singapore way is to encourage Singaporeans to join sports competitions free of charge, yes without the registration fees.
Cost can be a stumbling block. For example, the ESPZEN amateur soccer league was promoted as platform to promote the game locally, albeit at a social cum amateur level. However, a visit to the webpage indicates that a team has to pay S$220 per game. A team typically plays about 18 games in a league format. Multiply that by $220 by 18, and it would be roughly the amount a team foots in a season. I know of at least one team which ceased participating after one or two seasons because they found the costs staggering.
Public enthusiasm is a bonus. In retrospect, the central theme of YOG is youth development. For instance, our youth athletes would have the unique opportunity to learn from world class youth athletes. MOE, to its credit has rescheduled the timetable of our national schools competitions so that the school athletes would have the chance to be at the YOG. It will undoubtedly benefit our school athletes by watching their world class counterparts in action. And with the establishment of facilities for the YOG, future generation of young athletes can take advantage of them for their development.
No one will disagree that despite the lack of interest by the typical sports fan; there must still be a platform for the budding youth athlete to hone his or her skills. Ironic as it seems, but mega soccer stars like Lionel Messi and Luis Figo left their mark in the unpopular World Youth Cup, before stepping up to senior level. The YOG is not so much about public enthusiasm, but its main focus should be about youth development; and it is something that we should never lose sight of.
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Photo courtesy of Leonard Soosay
http://www.footballopod.com shows that amatuer fottball in Singapore is thriving. There seems to be an “underground” movement of football activity, apart from ESPNZen. Sports can be nurtured if parents encourage and see education as more than just scoring As. As the article said, the only way to live the Olympian ideal is to participate. The Koreans and Japanese are just as academically inclined, but yet they produce champions.
There has been negative comments in “alternative” media, about YOG and all its misses. As the articla rightfully mentioned, this is a nascent event. The experience of meeting Haitians (maybe talking to them about their disaster), Montenegro (where?) will reavel a profound educational expereince for students involved.
your facts are not correct. ESPZEN organises many leagues each with a different cost. You have quoted the midweek league which requires pitches with floodlights. Our YOUTH leagues http://www.youth.eszpen.com cost is only SGD100 per game… very reasonable i think you would agree.
Response from Kelvin Teo:
I have not committed any factual errors and my reasons are outlined below.
In any case, my article was written on August 2010 if you saw the electronic date as stated on the website and wasn’t written recently, before you had the youth leagues, which was supposed to begin in September, thus my content was on the current situation of youth participation (until August 2010) in your leagues.
In any case, in the context of my article, I was discussing about promoting public enthusiasism in sports, and public here includes youths and adults.
I have appended the first two lines of my relevant paragraph for your persusal, and have made bold certain key points.
“The third reason for the lack of enthusiasm could be attributed to the lack of sporting culture here in Singapore. Nurturing a sporting culture requires multiple approaches. One such approach is to encourage public participation in sports events and competitions, albeit the Singapore way. What I mean by the Singapore way is to encourage Singaporeans to join sports competitions free of charge, yes without the registration fees.
Cost can be a stumbling block. For example, the ESPZEN amateur soccer league was promoted as platform to promote the game locally, albeit at a social cum amateur level. However, a visit to the webpage indicates that a team has to pay S$220 per game. A team typically plays about 18 games in a league format. Multiply that by $220 by 18, and it would be roughly the amount a team foots in a season. I know of at least one team which ceased participating after one or two seasons because they found the costs staggering.”
Thus, what you mentioned was a moot point, in terms of date. Your youth league was only started in September 2010..
Your adult leagues was started since 2004. Before you had the youth leagues, I know of peers from my regular soccer kickabout groups who joined the adult leagues..they were in the secondary school age group from 16 – 17 years of age. In short, what they had were mixed teams comprising adults and youths.
In any case, your current youth league only caters to U-14 to U-16 age groups. So what goes for the 17 – 19 yo youths?
And, International Socccer Academy has always dominated your top divisions, and they themselves have been involved in youth development.
I am not sure if S$100 is reasonable, that’s not for me to say, but given a choice no one likes to “pay to play”.