From Singapore’s first outing as an independent nation at the Seap Games in 1965, to the opening of the National Stadium in 1973 and swimmer Joseph Schooling winning Singapore’s first Olympic gold at Rio 2016, The Straits Times’ sport desk relives the best moments in Singapore’s sporting history on the nation’s 60th birthday. 

Singapore’s first outing as an independent nation at the South-east Asian Peninsular Games (predecessor of the South-east Asian Games) yields 26 golds, 23 silvers and 27 bronzes. The contingent finish in the top three for the first time, behind Thailand and hosts Malaysia. Swimming powerhouse Singapore wins 16 out of the 25 gold medals, half of that haul by 11-year-old wonder girl Patricia Chan.

Singapore does not win gold, but claims five silvers and seven bronzes in its first Asian Games outing as an independent country. C. Kunalan, Malaysia’s M. Jegathesan and Japan’s Hideo Iijima all clock 10.5sec in the men’s 100m final, only for Jegathesan to pip Kunalan to gold by 0.01sec in a photo finish. Its men’s water polo team also win a creditable silver, while the Lions finish fourth in the football competition for their best Asiad result.

Still only 13, Patricia Chan claims a perfect 10 goal medals, all in record-breaking times, at the 1967 Seap Games in Thailand to help Singapore finish second in the medal tally (28) behind the hosts. 

Organised by the Singapore National Olympic Council, the Singapore Sports Awards are first handed out. Swimmers Tan Thuan Heng and Patricia Chan are named Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year respectively.

C. Kunalan becomes Singapore’s fastest man by clocking 10.38sec in the 100m quarter-finals at the Mexico Olympics. Kunalan recalls: “The most memorable was the altitude. I had difficulty breathing and I was panting most of the time.”

Arumugam Kannan wins bronze in the 1969 Seap Games men’s 50km race walk in 5hr 7min 3sec, a time that remains unsurpassed and is now Singapore’s oldest athletics record.

Syed Abdul Kadir (left) wins Singapore’s first-ever SEA Games boxing gold after beating Burma’s defending men’s light flyweight champion Vanla Dawla, who is considered Asia’s top boxer at the time, in the final. Kadir goes on to become the Republic’s first and only Olympic boxer at Munich 1972 and claims a Commonwealth Games bronze in New Zealand in 1974.

His rivals stare at him, and a race official asks if he has forgotten his shoes at the Munich 1972 Olympics, as a barefoot P.C. Suppiah becomes the first Singaporean to go under 32 minutes in the 10,000m after clocking 31min 59.2sec to break his own national record.

He says: “When I first ran at age 17, I could not afford shoes and ran barefoot. After many rounds at MacRitchie Reservoir, I soon enjoyed the feeling. At the Olympic Village, Adidas and Puma approached me. They wanted to sponsor my shoes and sportswear. I accepted both but only to give the products to a local charity.”

The National Stadium is completed for Singapore to host the Seap Games for the first time. The idea of the stadium is proposed in 1963 by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and the $50 million sports complex features an eight-lane running track, football field, facilities for table tennis and weightlifting, and an auditorium.

A 19-year-old Chee Swee Lee becomes the first woman to complete the 400m in the Aryamehr Stadium in an Asian Games record of 55.08sec in Tehran, Iran. She says: “It’s a race I ran in my mind so many times. At 150m, I’m making my move and I realise I’m catching up with everybody. The last 50m is my final burst. There was nobody around me… it was the most fantastic feeling, mission accomplished.”

In a golden year for Singapore football, the Lions beat archrivals Malaysia, then one of Asia’s top teams, 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier in March. In May, the Lions claim their first Malaysia Cup in 12 years, as Quah Kim Song scores an extra-time winner against Penang with a diving header off Dollah Kassim’s free kick. In December, Singapore win the inaugural Under-16 Lion City Cup by beating Pahang 5-0 in the final with the likes of young talent such as Fandi Ahmad and Razali Alias.

At 14, Junie Sng becomes the first Singaporean female athlete to win an Asian Games swimming gold when she beats Japan’s Kana Kamo in the 400m and 800m freestyle finals in Games-record times of 4min 31.35sec and 9:18.33.

Ang Peng Siong becomes the world’s fastest swimmer of the year after winning the 50m freestyle in 22.69sec at the 1982 United States Swimming Championships. This national record stands for 32 years. Later that year, he clinches gold at the Asian Games in New Delhi, India, where he wins the 100m freestyle final in a Games-record 53.00.

Hosting the SEA Games for the second time, Singapore produces several superb performances en route to a fourth-placed finish with 38 golds, 38 silvers and 58 bronzes. The key highlights include Wong Shoon Keat’s men’s singles badminton gold, swimmer Junie Sng’s 10 gold medals, and bowling trio Henry Tan, Ronnie Ng and S.Y. Loh breaking the world record with 3,620 pinfalls. Ng, who wins four golds, also chalks up a world mark of 5,129 in the all-events.

After turning down Dutch powerhouse Ajax Amsterdam for Indonesian side Niac Mitra, Fandi Ahmad returns to the Netherlands with FC Groningen to become the first Singaporean to play in Europe. He goes on to score in the club’s 2-0 win over Italy’s Inter Milan in the Uefa Cup. He is voted the most valuable player by fans that season and scores 11 goals in 36 games across two seasons.

Despite nursing a hamstring injury, Adelene Wee defeats rivals from 23 countries to become Singapore’s first bowling world champion in the women’s singles at the World Games in London. Only 19, Wee’s eight-game total of 1,601 pinfalls sees her becoming the youngest to win the title. 

Singapore’s Mah Li Lian is the dominant force in Asian squash – she is only 19 when she wins the first of four consecutive Asian Squash Championships titles. Mah also helps the Republic to victory in the women’s team championships in 1988, 1990 and 1994.

After a poor opening 79, pre-tournament favourite Samson Gimson steadies himself with rounds of 72, 73 and 74 to card a 10-over 298 and and beat Malaysians Wong Hung Nung and P. Gunasegaran to become the first Singaporean to win a SEA Games golf gold.

Paul Lim becomes the first player to hit a perfect nine-dart finish at the World Darts Championship. For his historic feat, the 25-year-old wins £52,000, more than double world champion Phil Taylor’s prize money. He goes on to create several upsets at the World Cup of Darts with Harith Lim, and has stayed relevant even at 70, when making the WDF World Darts Championship final in 2024.

Property agent Teo Sim Hua captures a serious piece of real estate when she beats China’s Huang Yuying in an hour-long women’s division clash to complete six wins at the Xiangqi World Cup Championships to be crowned Singapore’s first xiangqi world champion. Teo said: “In the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, Guan Yunchang had an operation on his arm to remove poison from the bone without anaesthesia, but did not feel any pain because he was concentrating on playing chess. That is exactly how I am when I play.” She died in 2023 aged 80.

Sheik Alau’ddin becomes Singapore’s first silat world champion, clinching gold at the sixth edition of the Pencak Silat World Invitational Championships in the Netherlands. He will go on to win another world title four years later in Thailand.

Singapore hosts the 17th edition of the SEA Games, marking the third time that the biennial Games is held here. A 14-year-old Joscelin Yeo bags nine golds and a silver to help Singapore notch its most successful campaign thus far – fourth in the medal table with 50 golds, 40 silvers and 74 bronzes.

Azman Abdullah, 30, becomes Singapore’s first bodybuilding world champion when he beats competitors from 51 countries to win the middleweight class at the World Amateur Bodybuilding Championships in Seoul, South Korea. It is the cherry on top of a fruitful year in which he wins a SEA Games gold on home soil, the World Games middleweight crown at The Hague, and two golds at the Asian Championships in Singapore. Upon his return, he treats himself to chilli crabs, barbecued prawns and fried fish.

Benedict Tan wins Singapore’s first Asian Games gold in sailing after topping the Laser class in Hiroshima, Japan. The doctor goes on to compete at the 1996 Olympics. Now 57, the veteran sports administrator has served in the Singapore Sailing Federation as president and is currently the vice-president of the Singapore National Olympic Council.

The Lions win 12 of their last 15 matches to pip Kedah to the Malaysia Premier League title by two points. This sets the stage for a stunning M-League and Malaysia Cup double, as Abbas Saad’s hat-trick and a goal from Fandi Ahmad help them thump Pahang 4-0 in the final at the Shah Alam Stadium in front of a capacity crowd of 81,000 fans, of which 50,000 are Singaporeans. Fandi says: “We were like lions when we got on the pitch. We killed Pahang because we pressed them, we harassed them, we tackled and we fought very hard. We played the perfect game.”

Vincent Ng becomes Singapore’s first wushu world champion after clinching gold in the daoshu event at the World Wushu Championships in Baltimore, United States. He will later join Mediacorp as an actor after reaching the finals of Star Search Singapore in 1997.

Following the Lions’ exit from the Malaysia Cup after the 1994 triumph, the $10 million S.League – Singapore’s first professional football league – is launched with eight clubs. Tiger Beer Series winners Geylang United beat Pioneer Series winners Singapore Armed Forces Football Club 2-1 to be crowned champions.

Fat slob turned commando, Lee Wung Yew transforms a childhood love of toy guns to win four gold medals in the individual trap, double trap, team trap and double trap team at the SEA Games in Jakarta. Paying tribute to his father Lee Eng Hong, who won the team trap golf at the 1979 Seap Games, who bought him the latest models of toy guns, he says: “No dad, no gun, no gold.”

With an all-local-born team, the Lions win their first major international football title with an unexpected Tiger Cup triumph in Vietnam. They beat Malaysia 2-0, draw 0-0 with the hosts, then thump Laos 4-1 to top Group B. The Lions then edge out the Indonesians 2-1, before R. Sasikumar scores with his shoulder blade for the only goal in the final against Vietnam.

Under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme, Brazil-born Egmar Goncalves, Croatia-born Mirko Grabovac and England-born Daniel Bennett become the first foreign-born Lions in 2002 before others from Nigeria, China, Serbia, Yugoslavia, South Korea and Japan are naturalised over the years. The results have been a mixed bag – although they helped Singapore win three Asean titles in 2005, 2007 and 2012, they did not make a breakthrough at the Asian level.

Li Li wins Singapore’s first-ever Commonwealth Games badminton gold after beating Briton Tracey Hallam in four sets in the women’s singles final.

In 2000, then Minister for Community Development and Sports Abdullah Tarmugi proposes the idea of a sports school to bolster the nation’s development in sports. The Singapore Sports School opens its doors in April 2004. Since then, the school has produced 19 Olympians including swimmer Tao Li, sprinter Shanti Pereira and table tennis player Izaac Quek, as well as 17 world champions such as badminton’s Loh Kean Yew, wushu exponents Jowen Lim and Zeanne Law and bowler Darren Ong.

At the sixth time of asking, Singapore are finally crowned queens of Asian netball. Hosting the Asian Netball Championship at the Toa Payoh Sports Hall, the Singapore Vandas beat Malaysia, the Maldives and India in the group stage and Thailand in the semi-final. They then prevail 53-39 against Causeway rivals Malaysia in the final to lift their first Asian title.

Joscelin Yeo wins her 40th SEA Games gold after clinching the 50m freestyle in Manila to surpass Patricia Chan’s 39-gold haul. Yeo’s record remains the most number of golds won by an individual at the biennial Games. She says: “I don’t look at the number of medals I win. We had a great team this year and we managed to get the job done. I really enjoyed myself.”

The Singapore Slingers, the first and only professional basketball team based in Singapore, are launched as part of Australia’s National Basketball League. Comprising 10 foreigners and Singaporeans Koh Meng Koon and Pathman Matialakan, they withdraw from the league after two seasons, citing travel costs. They then become one of six founding members of the Asean Basketball League in 2009.

Bowler Remy Ong etches his name into Singapore history when he win two golds in the singles and all-events (5,566 pinfalls) at the World Men’s Championships in South Korea. Ong says: “How could I not cry when our national anthem was playing? It was such an emotional moment for me”.

The Government announces the launch of Project 0812, committing $7 million to a scheme aimed at winning an Olympic medal at the 2008 or 2012 Games. Singapore’s only Olympic medal then was Tan Howe Liang’s weightlifting silver at the Rome Games in 1960. Singapore surpasses expectations, winning a silver medal in the women’s team table tennis event in 2008, followed by two bronzes (women’s table tennis singles) and (women’s team table tennis) in 2012.

Feng Tianwei, Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu deliver a table tennis women’s team silver at Beijing 2008 to end Singapore’s 48-year medal drought at the Olympics.

Equestrienne Laurentia Tan wins the Republic’s first medals at the Beijing Paralympic Games with bronzes in the mixed individual championship and freestyle events. Swimmer Yip Pin Xiu claims a silver in the S3 50m freestyle event, before becoming the first Singaporean to win a gold medal at the Paralympics when she touches the wall first in 58.75sec in the S3 50m backstroke final. She says: “I’m only 16, yet I have gotten a Paralympic gold medal which has been my dream for some time.”

Formula One makes its first pit stop at the Singapore Grand Prix, with F1’s first night race on a street track drawing sell-out crowds and TV audiences worldwide. Dubbed the sport’s “crown jewel” by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, the event continues to be a top draw annually, with its 15th edition in 2024 attracting a sold-out crowd of 269,072 fans over the three-day race weekend.

Feng Tianwei, Wang Yuegu, Sun Beibei, Li Jiawei and Yu Mengyu conjure the Miracle of Moscow, beating mighty China 3-1 in the World Team Table Tennis Championships women’s team final to become Singapore’s first world champions in the sport. World No. 2 Feng says: “Winning an Olympic silver medal was historic, winning the world championships is a miracle. This is the best day of my life.”

Singapore hosts the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, which sees 3,524 young athletes from 204 countries competing across 201 events. Singapore’s athletes claim two silvers and four bronzes in swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, archery, sailing and football, with the Cubs capturing the nation’s imagination with a spirited victory in the third-place play-off.

Headquartered here, One Fighting Championship, Asia’s biggest mixed martial arts promotion, holds its first event at the Singapore Indoor Stadium before it is rebranded as One Championship in 2015. Over the years, it has become the home for some storied MMA names like Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez and also produced stars of its own like Amir Khan and Canadian-born siblings Angela and Christian Lee, who have fought under the Singapore flag.

Singapore clinch several historic SEA Games victories with Mok Ying Ren becoming the first Singaporean man to win a marathon gold, while Dinah Chan recovers from a car accident to become the first Singaporean woman to win a cycling gold. Saiyidah Aisyah wins the Republic’s first individual rowing gold medallist in the women’s lightweight single sculls 2,000m, while Nicole Tan becomes the first local to win the women’s individual 25m air pistol rapid fire event after being the last to qualify for the semi-finals.

The Singapore Sports Hub, comprising the 55,000-capacity National Stadium, OCBC Aquatic Centre and the OCBC Arena, opens its doors to the public. The project was mooted by then Community Development and Sports minister Abdullah Tarmugi in 2001 to replace the ageing National Stadium. The first event held there is the World Club 10s rugby tournament in June 2014. The venue is officially opened by then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in July 2015.

Teenager Martina Veloso wins the air rifle gold at the ISSF World Cup in Germany. The 14-year-old beats 2008 Olympic champion Katerina Emmons (Czech Republic) and 2010 European champion Andrea Arsovic (Serbia) to become the youngest shooter at the meet to clinch a title. A silver medallist at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, she goes on to claim two golds at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the 10m air rifle and 50m air rifle prone.

Singapore hosts the SEA Games for a fourth time after a 22-year absence. The Games coincide with the nation’s SG50 birthday celebrations, with the newly opened Sports Hub hosting the opening and closing ceremonies. Team Singapore finish second in the medal tally behind Thailand, with 84 golds, 73 silvers and 102 bronzes, with Joseph Schooling’s nine golds among the highlights of the Games. 

Joseph Schooling delivers Singapore’s first Olympic gold in the 100m butterfly final in a Games record-time 50.39sec in Rio de Janeiro, beating American legend Michael Phelps, Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh and South Africa’s Chad le Clos – the trio clock 51.14sec to share second place. Schooling says: “It’s been a tough road, I’m not going to lie. The first guy through the wall is always bloody. I had to take that blow.”

Singapore’s water polo kingpins claim their 27th consecutive gold medal in Kuala Lumpur after finishing top in the round-robin competition. While their winning streak ends in 2019 in the Philippines with Indonesia stealing their crown, the Singaporeans finally return to the top in Cambodia in 2023. 

Tay Wei Ming becomes Singapore’s first para-badminton world champion. Along with partner Indonesian Suryo Nugroho, they clinch a shock victory at the world championships in the men’s doubles SU5 final. They beat Malaysian top seeds Cheah Liek Hou and Hairol Fozi Saaba 18-21, 23-21, 21-18 in Ulsan, South Korea.

Six is the lucky number for England-born Peter Gilchrist as he claims his sixth world title after beating India’s Sourav Kothari 1,307-967 in the World Billiards Championship final in Melbourne in October. Two months later, he beats Myanmar’s Nay Thway Oo 3-0 in the final in the Philippines for his sixth straight SEA Games gold.

In her maiden World Archery Para Championships in the Netherlands, Syahidah Alim defeats 2016 Paralympic champion Jessica Stretton to become Singapore’s first world champion in the sport. 

Para-swimmer Yip Pin Xiu retains her Paralympics women’s S2 50m and 100m backstroke titles at Tokyo 2020 and gains a bigger victory for the para-sport community. Following a spirited public debate over the disparity in cash incentives, DBS Bank comes on board as a sponsor of the Athletes Achievement Awards to match the Tote Board’s commitment until 2024. As a result, the AAA reward for a Paralympic gold that was worth $200,000 is doubled.

Aloysius Yapp becomes the first Singaporean to reach world No. 1 in pool following strong finishes in the United States – third at the World 10-ball Championship in Las Vegas, second at the US Open 9-ball Championship in Atlantic City, before the Michigan Open win. 

Against the odds, and on one good ankle, the 22nd-ranked Loh Kean Yew becomes Singapore’s first badminton world champion with a 21-15, 22-20 win over India’s world No. 14 Srikanth Kidambi in the BWF World Championships men’s singles final. Loh says: “I grew up watching Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei playing such big finals and it’s unbelievable I also became a world champion.”

Shanti Pereira becomes Asia’s fastest woman and completes a remarkable 100m and 200m double at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok. Pereira says: “I just want my story to inspire as many people as possible. When you put your mind to it and not care about what other people think, just do you, you can do it.”

Shannon Tan, 19, gets a dream debut in the Ladies European Tour when she triumphs at the Magical Kenya Ladies Open to become the first Singaporean golfer to win on the tour. She says: “I hope this inspires junior golfers in Singapore. I want to see golf grow in Singapore. It would be great to see the sport you love grow bigger and bigger.”

Maximilian Maeder wins a kitefoiling bronze at the Paris Olympics on National Day in a year when he is also crowned world, European and Asian champion. At 17, he is also Singapore’s youngest Olympic medallist. He says: “To be able to put a smile on people’s faces with my own effort through sport, and to see it come true lights a fire in me to try and continue and repeat it again.”

Singapore hosts the World Chess Championship for the first time, marking the second time the event is held in South-east Asia after the Philippines staged it in 1978. India’s Gukesh Dommaraju defeats China’s defending champion Ding Liren 7.5-6.5 in the best-of-14 match to be crowned the youngest world champion. 

Singapore is the first South-east Asian country to host the World Aquatics Championships, stepping in as a replacement for Kazan after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite initial concerns, about 140,000 spectators watch nearly 2,500 athletes from 206 nations and territories compete in water polo, open water swimming, artistic swimming, high diving, diving and swimming at the purpose-built 4,800-seater WCH Arena, OCBC Aquatic Centre and Sentosa.