Calvin Cheng broke records in his native Singapore and his career as a long jumper was starting to take off internationally, but then came national service.
Now 31 and a lawyer, Cheng cannot help but wonder what could have been.
“Unfortunately, I just was not able to get the time off to train,” Cheng said. “That was when I decided that it just wasn’t worth it, and that was when I gave up.”
Photo: AFP
Singaporeans are required to spend two years in the military, police or emergency services upon turning 18, a decades-old policy that leaders say remains necessary to defend the city-state.
However, critics have increasingly questioned this obligation — which applies to men only — when it comes to athletes, saying it can torpedo sporting careers just as they are getting off the ground.
The debate has been fueled by two Singaporeans who did not enlist so they could pursue their careers with top English soccer teams, and were then told they had broken the law, meaning they could go to jail.
Cheng, who served in Singapore’s military doing clerical duties from 2010 to 2012, does not believe he was necessarily destined for the highest levels of long jump, but he has no doubt that national service brought his sporting career to a premature end.
“It was a very good run, but it was a short run,” he said. “When it was time to enlist — that was it.”
Cheng did not apply to postpone his national service, because such requests are very rarely granted.
In the past 20 years, only three deferments have been given for exceptional sports stars — swimmer Joseph Schooling, Singapore’s first and only Olympic gold medalist, fellow Olympic swimmer Quah Zheng-wen and sailor Maximilian Soh.
More commonly, authorities allow Singaporeans to delay or interrupt their national service for education reasons.
National service became a subject of heated debate in 2018 after Ben Davis was refused permission to defer after signing a deal with Fulham, who were in the English Premier League at the time.
Authorities said that, for athletes, such allowances are only made for potential medal winners in major tournaments such as the Olympics, whereas Davis was seeking to further his own career.
The refusal sparked fierce criticism in the city-state, where the Premier League has a large following, with a petition calling for Davis to be given a deferment garnering more than 24,000 signatures.
Davis, who now plays for third-tier Oxford United, has not returned to Singapore since. He could face a three-year jail term for breaking the Enlistment Act.
There was a similar case in October, when Harry Birtwistle signed for Premier League side West ham United.
Soon afterward, officials said the 18-year-old — who reportedly has a Singaporean mother and British father — had broken the law by failing to enlist.
The government has long insisted national service is vital for the defense of a city-state that has a population of just 5.5 million and is surrounded by much larger neighbors. “Singaporeans know that they cannot count on others and must defend Singapore themselves,” the Singaporean Ministry of Defense said in 2018.
Officials also say they are flexible, helping athletes to fit training around national service, and some have won medals at major tournaments while enlisted.
For Derek Wong, signing up for national service in the police in 2007 did not signal the end of his badminton career, and he managed to continue training. He went on to compete in two Olympics and won a Commonwealth Games silver medal in 2014.
National service “helps to build a guy’s character. It helps to build our teamwork,” said Wong, who is now 32 and working in business development.
However, Cheng said that Singapore could produce more world-class athletes if it showed more flexibility, such as by granting more deferments, citing the example of South Korea.
Able-bodied South Korean men have to do military service to defend against the nuclear-armed North, but Cheng said Seoul is more obliging when it comes to sportspeople than Singapore.
Premier League star Son Heung-min, who plays for Tottenham Hotspur, only had to do four weeks’ national service, rather than 21 months, after he helped South Korea win an Asian Games gold medal in 2018.
“Essentially the message [the authorities] are sending to Singapore athletes is that unless you are Joseph Schooling, you won’t get a deferment,” Cheng said.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
RSS