Athletes with disabilities to have dedicated training facilities at Team Singapore’s upcoming Kallang premises

PARIS: An upcoming sports facility in Singapore will also cater to athletes with disabilities, in order to get them on the same footing as their able-bodied counterparts, said Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong.
“The new plans that we’ve announced for Kallang – with dedicated training facilities, with full boarding, with end-to-end support from sports science as well as academia – will also apply equally to disability sports,” he told CNA on Monday (Sep 2) in Paris, where the Paralympic Games are being held.
He added that his ministry has been working with the Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC) and Singapore National Paralympic Council in the planning and design of the new facility which will be the new “home” for Team Singapore. 
“They will have a space there that they can call their own, right next to every other athlete,” said Mr Tong.
Treating Olympians and Paralympians equally also applies to public recognition and coverage of their events, he added. 
A centralised and purpose-built facility for disability sports in Kallang will enable training to be more accessible for para-athletes, said SDSC executive director Kelly Fan.
Such a facility can help them train more frequently and without accessibility issues in the way, and with the assurance that their sporting needs are catered for, she added.
She noted that many disability sports require storage for specialised equipment.
“Athletes in unique sports like goalball and boccia, which require a silent environment and uncommon court lines, can also benefit from the purpose-built facility,” she said in response to queries from CNA.
Boccia, which means to bowl in Italian, is a target ball sport played by athletes in wheelchairs. Goalball relies almost entirely on sound, having been created for those who are blind or have low vision.
While SDSC has yet to be involved in designing the space, it recently developed a preliminary set of guidelines for inclusive sport facilities that has been shared with Sport Singapore (SportSG) for its review. 
Some considerations would be whether the facility for para-sports would be on ground level or lift levels and whether there are sufficient accessible changing rooms and toilets for multiple wheelchair users, said Ms Fan. Flooring would preferably be non-carpeted and level, to facilitate movement of wheelchair users, she added. 
“Developing sports science and sports medicine knowledge and expertise in disability sports would also be useful to develop the performance of our para-athletes,” she told CNA on Thursday.
“Most specialists base their practice on non-disabled athletes so when it comes to para-athletes, it becomes a more cautious and experimental approach.”
Mr Tong said that Singapore has to go beyond making facilities and infrastructure accessible for athletes with disabilities, by ensuring they can participate in programmes and events at such facilities.
“When we can achieve this bit by bit, we will become more inclusive, not just in terms of physical accessibility, but social accessibility as well,” he said. He was speaking after para-athlete Jeralyn Tan clinched a silver in boccia for Singapore at the Paris Paralympics.
Her historic win, the country’s very first medal in the sport, came a day after Singapore’s most decorated Paralympian and swimmer Yip Pin Xiu won her second gold in the Games.
Mr Tong noted that Singapore’s performance in the first few days of this year’s Games, which will end on Sunday, was already the nation’s best in history. 
He also said the athletes, including those who did not manage a podium finish, have made the country proud.
“We’re looking forward to more, and I think this gives us a very strong foundation to push on from here,” he added.