22/08/2016

Olympic Games Rio 2016


Singapore at the Olympics

The country has won five Olympic medals, the first was at the 1960 Summer Olympics, the second at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the third and fourth at the 2012 Summer Olympics. At the 2016 Summer Olympics Singapore won their first ever gold medal and the fifth overall.

Singapore's first Olympic medal was won by Tan Howe Liang, who won silver in lightweight weightlifting in 1960 Summer Olympics. The first and to date only Olympic gold medal was won by Joseph Schooling in the men's 100 metre butterfly at the 2016 Summer Olympics. In table tennisJing JunhongLi Jiawei and Yu Mengyu came close to winning medals by finishing in fourth place for the women's singles events at the 2000 Sydney Olympics2004 Athens Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics respectively.

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, Olympic swimmer Joseph Schooling won a gold medal in the Men's 100 metre butterfly in an Olympics record of 50.39 seconds, becoming the first gold Olympic medallist of Singapore. This was also the first gold medal by a Southeast Asian male swimmer and the first Olympic gold that Singapore achieved. During the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, Singapore sent 23 athletes to the Games but did not manage to win any medals


Singapore in the Olympics


Singapore’s past Olympic medallists

Singapore made its Olympic debut as a British colony at London 1948 with its sole representative, fireman Lloyd Valberg, who was the late grand uncle of Olympic champion Joseph Schooling. He finished joint-14th out of 27 high jumpers with a 1.8m leap.

Since then, the Republic’s athletes have competed in every edition of the Games, except in Moscow 1980 when Singapore joined a United States-led boycott.

The Straits Times looks at the medallists through the years:
  • Tan Howe Liang, weightlifting (1960)
  • Feng Tianwei, Li Jiawei, and Wang Yuegu, table tennis (2008, 2012)
  • Feng Tianwei, table tennis (2012)
  • Joseph Schooling, swimming (2016)
  • Max Maeder, kitefoiling (2024)


Paralympic Games Medals

Singapore began their participation in the Paralympic Games when a squad was sent to the 1988 Summer Paralympics held in Seoul, South Korea. Despite winning no medals in the 1988 Summer Games, Singapore continued to send teams to the Summer Paralympics.[1] At the 2008 Summer Paralympics, Singapore sent six athletes and came home with four medals. The 2008 Games was the first time Singapore has won a medal in any Paralympic competition