Reported in "Today", 25 Jan 2007, Singapore's aspirations to do well in the Beijing Olympics by providing full support to specially selected athletes to prepare for the BO which is barely 18 months away. The most welcomed news is that males of 18 years and above can defer their National (Military) Service obligation, a contentious issue which in the past had brought a great deal of unhappiness. Even NS (National Service) can wait for Olympic gold Thursday • January 25, 2007 Tan Yo-Hinn yohinn@mediacorp.com.sg National Service can wait, studies will be put on hold and careers on the backburner. Instead, 22 athletes will train full-time with just one objective in mind: An Olympic medal. The plan — called Project 0812 to indicate Singapore's ambitions for the Games in 2008 and 2012 — was revealed to an amazed gathering yesterday. Never before has Singapore pursued Olympic dreams with such single-minded fervour. Three of the athletes identified as part of the project — sailors Teo Wee Chin, Terence Koh and Maximilian Soh — are due to start National Service. This could be deferred as Singapore's sporting gurus want them to spend the next 18 months — leading up to the Beijing Olympics — on non-stop training and nearly 20 overseas stints. "The relevant ministries are working together to sort the deferment issue out, and it should be positive," said Mr Ng Ser Miang, Project 0812 head and vice-president of the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC). Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean, the SNOC chief, was also present at the press conference to flag off this historic initiative. Money will not be an issue. The Singapore Totalisator Board and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) are pumping $7 million into the dream. The idea is to ensure that the athletes who have the potential to win a medal at Beijing 2008 or London 2012 should get the finest support possible. Neither time nor resources should stand in the way. The athletes are willing to make their share of sacrifices too. Eleven of them will put their studies on hold until the Beijing Olympics end. Ten of them are sailors - including Roy Tay who is a Deakins University, Koh Seng Leong from Singapore Management University (SMU), Benjamin Tan who was planning to enter the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and their colleagues, Chung Pei Ming, Toh Liying, Loh Man Yi, Xu Yuanzhen, Deborah Ong, Colin Cheng and Victoria Chan. Shooter Vanessa Yong is in the same boat. "All the athletes will train full-time from now until the 2008 Olympic Games," said Mr Ng. At 40, shooter Lee Wung Yew is the oldest of the 22 athletes selected for the project. And the two-time Sportsman of the Year (1989, 1997) is set to spend all of March training under renowned Italian coach Marcello Dradi in Bologna. The other seven athletes (including badminton and table-tennis players) indentified for the project are already full-time sportspersons. Defence Minaster Teo said the idea was to build on the success Singapore had achieved at the Asian and Commonwealth Games and take sports to the next level. "That's what this project is about," he said. Sailor Teo, 19, who is hoping to get his NS stint deferred, told Today: "I'm delighted and honoured to be part of Project 0812 as not everyone has this opportunity." For your information, others selected are: Badminton: Ronald Susilo (MS), Li Li (WS), Jiang Yanmei and Li Yujia (WD). Table-Tennis: Li Jiawei, Sun Beibei and Zhang Xueling (all WS and team).
A more auspicious date: 20/07/2007, has come and gone! Many young couples chose to get registered or married on that day and it must have been a record of sorts for Singapore as I'm sure it is for many other countries! Well you guessed it! 08/08/2008 or its short form: 08/08/08 may yet be a more auspicious one, especially with the Chinese, since the figure 8 denotes FORTUNE & PROSPERITY!
Wonder if travelling and accommodation during Olympics will be affordable. I would love to go there .....
So do I! I hope Kim (BC Melbourne) can update us asap on whether he could get in touch with the headmaster of an international school in Beijing on whether we could rent the student hostels. Hope it will be vacation time for the students during the Beijing Olympics.
That's not for the chinese, why? I had a TOC one day in school and she told me in her culture 070707 is considered lucky. She wasn't chinese herself, she said in other cultures 8 is a lucky number to me-because I'm chinese.
i'm going to support the non-CHN players. Do you know how or when we can book the badminton tickets? Actually which part of Beijing is the badminton venue? East, south, west or north?
Just a bit of info.. ..i don't think the tickets are available, yet; but, maybe, we can reserve them..Here are a couple of links abt the venue/location: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40584 http://en.beijing2008.cn/cptvenues/venues/btg/index.shtml
Why dont just book a hotel and share the costs. Will it be easier to get transportation from the hostel?
Hi guys, I would definitely like to be there myself. Currently making enquiry on accomodation but haven't been provided with any definite answers yet. The suggestion by Ants is quite good. We could approach hotels that is outside of Beijing and charter a bus to drop us at the games. We could have the bus for some sight seeing as well. Anyway, we should try a few different avenue to source accomodation instead of relying on a single source. We could compare notes and go for the most viable option. Will keep you guys informed on the progress. Kim.
