It's unlikely a homegrown Singaporean will ever win an Olympic medal. Time to import more Li Jiaweis

I love the Olympics.

Every four years, the finest specimens of the human race emerge from all corners of the earth to converge in one city. They are the strongest, the fastest and the most agile people on the planet.

Lesser mortals like us watch in awe as they run, jump, swim, dive, shoot and play all manner of team sports. What an inspiration they are.

NOT surprisingly, Singapore made a zero showing at the Athens Games. I think it's pretty much accepted by now that when it comes to sports, locally born and bred Singaporeans just ain't got it.

Yes, the country scores splendidly when it comes to its airport, sea port, the number of As students get in exams, and the speed at which we type SMSes. But sports? It just doesn't seem to be our thing.

Other than Tan Howe Liang's weightlifting silver 44 years ago at the Rome olympics, it's been a drought.

The closest Singapore has got to an Olympic medal since was in 2000, when China-born table tennis player Jing Junhong reached the semi-finals, and in Athens, when Li Jiawei, another China-born, got to the final four in the same game, and Indonesia-born badminton player Ronald pSusilo made it to the final eight.

My bet is that this scenario is unlikely to change. Singaporeans are born without hunger for sporting success.

In fact, some might even wonder if Singapore should just forget about sports altogether.

Millions of dollars from both the Government and the private sector have been poured into promoting football here.

Singapore now has a Sports School. Its aim is to help teenagers juggle sports and studies, with equal emphasis on both. How's that for an out-and-out commitment to sports?

So should the country forget about nurturing its sportsmen? Why bother?

I suppose the answer is this: We should bother because there really is no other force that unifies a community as effectively as sports - not music, not movies, not religion, not politics. The beauty of sports is that it is blind to race, language, religion, age, gender and income.

Just witness the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Singaporeans who watched the Li Jiawei matches, all on tenterhooks and willing her to win. How's that for building national spirit?

So what is Singapore to do?

The way I see it, there really is no point in banking so much on Singapore-born athletes anymore. It's just not in our DNA to be Olympic champs. Instead, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports should crank up its Foreign Talent Scheme.

Import more Li Jiaweis and Ronald Susilos for all the sports that the country wants to excel in. If Singapore is so aggressive about attracting foreign talent to the business world, why be coy about luring world-class athletes here?

Give them money, housing, citizenship. Many countries already do this, and what do we have to lose? National pride? I don't think so. Singaporeans have reached the stage where the likes of Susilo are embraced as their own. Besides, this has always been a migrant society.

This, of course, isn't an ideal situation.

As a Singaporean, I would so love to be able to boast of an Olympic champ who grew up in Bedok instead of Beijing, MacPherson instead of Moscow. But let's be realistic.

Will Singapore fare better in Beijing 2008? We'll see. Who knows, maybe I'm completely wrong about homegrown athletes. Maybe from Jurong or Katong can prove to be a winner. If so, you can bet I'll be cheering like mad.

Sumiko Tan condensed from The Straits Times Interactive, Aug 29, 2004