Is the medal count an effective way to assess sporting success? SUSS sports professor Eugene Chew takes a deep dive into Singapore’s performance in the last five Asian Games.
Singapore's Shanti Pereira, Maximilian Maeder and Ryan Lo won gold at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Hence, at the individual level, it is inevitable that their performances are judged by the colour of the medal that they win or do not win. Besides, this is the nature of sports competitions; athletes compete to achieve a podium finish. China has topped all five editions of the Games and is clearly the powerhouse in Asia with its high achievements in gold, silver, bronze and total medals. In terms of gold medals, South Korea ranked second, followed by Japan in third position in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Asian Games. In the 2018 and 2023 Asian Games, Japan overtook South Korea. These three countries won the bulk of the available medals.
The top five sports that contributed to the silver and bronze medal counts are: Sailing , bowling , swimming , table tennis and pencak silat . Sport Singapore assesses NSAs on critical factors that are deemed to provide the conditions for achieving success at the major games – Southeast Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, and Summer Olympic Games – and funds them accordingly based on the outcomes that they mutually agree on. These factors include leadership, governance, technical expertise, coaching system, and the use of sports science and medicine that enhance and improve sport performance.
Also, for each specific event, measures such as race time and split achieved by Team Singapore swimmers can be compared against those of the event winners to understand how far off they are from them.