Geriatric Race

I was just thinking about my post where I mentioned that Singapore needs a national sport – something that Singaporeans naturally would be motivated to play because they simply love it.

It seemed ping pong was the answer. Singapore has invested so much into the sport. Our entire team has been transplanted out of their home country and away from their families for our selfish desire for a medal. And now, we actually have a silver medal after our 48 year drought.

While others are asking when the next medal will come, the question I think is more important is who is going to win it. I said, hopefully, it’ll be a born in Singapore Singaporean.

But now, I’m not so sure. Not so sure that ping pong should be our national sport.

If you think about it, ping pong is one of those sports where you have to be pretty young to play it.

Singapore isn’t, as of now, producing enough young.

I noticed that for pole vault and gymnastics, there were participants were above 30.

Yes, Jeff Hartwig, 40, the oldest American to qualify in the US Track and Field team, failed to get through the finals of the pole vault.

But, at 33, Oksana Chusovitina, a mother, got a silver in the vault. Her story, her five medals, the different flags she competed under and her son who was struck with leukemia – the reason why she’s competing under the German flag today, is worth reading about.

So the thing is, I think it’s important for all the money that is put into the training of sportsmen to last a longer time. We can’t have sportsmen who make it for only three Olympics. We need them to return for four or five times. That’s how we can maximize our returns.

Seeing as ping pong is a fast game and usually only young people can really keep up with the frenetic pace of the game, it’s not a good game to invest in for aging Singapore.

This means you can take out sports like badminton, sprint races – actually, even 400m races, because they’re now doing that distance at below 50 seconds, sport where it’s all about speed.

So what would be good sports?

I’m not a sports person, so please, correct me if I’m under the wrong impression.

Other than the above mentioned two of gymnastics and pole vault, shooting, I think is a good sport. After all, a lot of it is about mental stamina. Oh wait, I forgot, it’s not good if you have to wear bi-focals.

High jump, javelin… I give up.

You know what? Singapore should just propose a Geriatrics Olympics. After all, there’s the Youth Olympics. Why are we discriminating against the old?

But let’s face it. Usain Bolt will get old too. And if there’s Geriatric Olympics, he’ll beat all the old fogeys in there.

I give up! There’s no winning is there?