Monkey Off Their Backs

Congratulations to Singapore for winning their first Olympic medal since 1960. Table tennis players Feng Tianwei, Li Jia Wei and Wang Yue Gu lost to the Chinese team tonight for the gold medal, but I'm sure the country is rather happy at the outcome all the same. The last person to win an Olympic medal for Singapore was Tan Howe Liang, who won a silver medal in weightlifting back in 1960, at the Rome games. The country had become rather desperate in its efforts to win something after 48 years. (American sports fans may be able to relate if you're a fan of the New York Rangers, who finally won the Stanley Cup in 1994 after a 54 year drought, the Boston Red Sox, who won their first World Series in 86 years in 2004, or (for the truly diehard fans) the Chicago Cubs, who haven't won a World Series since 1908.)

Part of the problem has been that Singapore doesn't have much of a sports culture. If you compare the medal count to national populations, some countries with smaller populations, like Croatia, Mongolia, Armenia and New Zealand, have more medals than Singapore (two, two, five and five, respectively). So Singapore is definitely slacking. The good news is that there have been some steps taken by the government and the media to improve the situation, but progress is very, very slow.

Now, when I wrote the title above, "Monkey Off Their Backs," one "back" is that of the government, which has been working to improve Singapore's sports culture. But the other "back" is that of Tan Howe Liang himself, the 1960 silver medal winner. Now 75, Mr. Tan is glad that someone else has won a medal:

'Every four years when the Olympics come around, many people look for me. Aiyah, I've got tired of it.

'Mind you, my achievement came so very long ago, and I have to repeat the Rome story again and again. It's time for others to take the spotlight.'

So, congratulations once again to Singapore; insha'allah, the women can bring in one or two more medals with the individual table tennis play.