New SpexPotential Programme Nurtures Athletes Early for Sustained Sporting Successes

• New programme will enhance the levels of support offered by the High Performance Sports system for TeamSG athletes at the SEA Games level and beyond, with a longer term goal of preparing them for the Asian and World Levels.

• spexPotential will also strengthen the youth-to-senior athlete transition via a more seamless support structure.

Singapore, 29 August 2023 – Sport Singapore (SportSG) today announced the Sport Excellence Potential (spexPotential) – a new programme that provides an enhanced level of support to prepare athletes for gold medal success at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games level, with the longer term aim of transitioning these athletes into the Sport Excellence Scholarship (spexScholarship) programme¹. The introduction of spexPotential – which offers a more seamless support structure – will also strengthen the support for youth-to-senior athlete transition and nurture athletes early for sustained sporting success.

Both spexScholarship and spexPotential programmes provide financial and programmatic support for athletes within the High Performance Sports (HPS) pathway. These include a monthly stipend, as well as support for local and overseas training and competitions, sport science and medicine, education, career and personal development. (Please see Table 1 for an overview of the different carding levels within both spexScholarship and spexPotential programmes).

Table 1: Overview of carding levels within spexScholarship and spexPotential

The spexPotential programme will complement existing athlete development initiatives and support structures (e.g. spexCarding) to boost athlete performances. The Singapore Sport Institute (SSI) and National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI) will jointly deliver the support to spexPotential athletes.

Mr Toh Boon Yi, Chairman of the spexPotential Approval Panel and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Sport Singapore, said, “Singapore’s HPS system needs to continually evolve so that it takes into account the aspiration and commitment of various cohorts of sporting talents who are at different stages of their development pathways.

“Over the years, we have broadened the spexScholarship programme to include more of Singapore’s top-tier athletes. We have also enhanced the spexCarding framework and systemised the approach in channelling resources to support the National Sports Associations’ athlete pipeline development. With younger cohorts displaying outstanding performances at the recent major games, it is timely for us to roll out the new spexPotential programme to help them realise their potential to be top-class.”

Applications for the spexPotential programme will begin from 1 September 2023 for a period of two months, and will be held concurrently with the spexScholarship programme. All eligible nominations for the spexPotential programme will be evaluated by the NYSI. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed by an Interview Panel made up of a pool of sport specialists from NYSI. Following which, the Interview Panel’s recommendations will be submitted to the spexPotential Selection Committee for approval. All nominated athletes will be informed of the outcome of their spexPotential application by 28 February 2024.

For more information on spexScholarship and spexPotential, kindly refer to the High Performance Sports Handbook here.

Footnote:

^1. spexScholarship programme is the pinnacle level of enhanced support that provides financial and programmatic support to prepare athletes to excel at the Major Games at Asian and World levels.