Cover Teo‑Koh Sock Miang, the president of the Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC)
Teo‑Koh Sock Miang, the president of the Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC)
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The veteran sport administrator discusses how the Singapore Disability Sports Council cultivates future talents and leverages sports to enhance the lives of persons with disabilities
“Sport was the reason I went to school,” quips Teo‑Koh Sock Miang. “I was on five different school teams: softball, netball, hockey, track and field, and tennis; I literally went to school just to play sports.”
The fact that her form teacher was sprinter C Kunalan, regarded as one of Singapore’s greatest athletes, had something to do with it. “He was still competing then—and the fastest in Singapore,” says Teo‑Koh, the president of the Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC). “Having him as your form teacher and coach … imagine the influence he has on you. For me, that was such good role modelling. It’s not just about the sport; it’s about how you live your life.”
You can say that this left a lasting impression on her. But instead of pursuing elite sports herself, she trained to become a teacher.
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She taught mathematics and physical education, and coached mainstream athletics and swimming. “One of my athletes came up tops in the A Division sports. I coached him the way I was coached, but it felt inadequate because I didn’t have [knowledge of] the science behind what’s happening with [the] body [when it comes to performance in sports],” says Teo‑Koh.
She went to further her studies in Canada and it was there that “my eyes were opened to persons with disabilities”, Teo‑Koh recalls. “I had classmates who came to class in a wheelchair, or were visually challenged, which was something I didn’t see [much of] in Singapore at that time in the late 1970s and early ’80s. It was such an eye‑opening experience.” So when she completed her studies and returned home, “I went to find out how I could serve”, she says.
She ended up volunteering as a coach for para‑wheelchair racing, which was part of a para‑athletics programme at that time, and later, para‑swimming.
These experiences, she shares, exposed her to what was happening on the ground while allowing her to recognise the difficulties and challenges faced by our para-athletes as well as the need for funding to support them—marking the start of her decades‑long involvement in disability sports.
Besides the SDSC, Teo‑Koh, who has a PhD in human performance (specialising in exercise physiology, and growth and development) and disability sports, is president of the Singapore National Paralympic Council and Special Olympics Singapore. “Across the three organisations, I don’t think we differ that much in our vision to transform lives through sport, and our mission to build, foster and encourage an inclusive society,” she says. “We believe that persons with disabilities, or persons with different abilities, as I call them, can live a good‑quality life through sports. Sport is a platform that allows for holistic development.”
This is why the athlete is “always at the centre of everything we do, for every decision we make, and every consideration when we work with donors and sponsors”, Teo‑Koh shares. “You have your athlete, and then the circle around them includes their families—because family support is important to persons with disabilities—and volunteers who show up every week to support their training, and even those on our boards, including our fundraisers.”
Pointing to the achievements of national para‑athletes, including swimmers Yip Pin Xiu and Toh Wei Soong, equestrienne Laurentia Tan and archer Nur Syahidah Alim, on the world stage, from the Paralympics to world championships, Teo‑Koh says: “It’s so powerful when you see what they can do in spite of the challenges that they go through. There’s national pride in flying the Singapore flag.”
Team Singapore para‑athletes, who are on Sport Singapore’s Sports Excellence Scholarship, go through the same High Performance Sport System, run by the Singapore Sport Institute, as the mainstream athletes. They get support to train full‑time, and have access to sport science and medicine intervention, among other things.
An initiative Teo‑Koh is excited about is the introductory programmes, or tryouts, run by the SDSC or its partner organisations, where those new to disability sports can learn the fundamental skills required. “We put them through a series of fun activities to help us identify their skills and innate abilities, and then recommend the sports suitable for them based on their interests and impairment groups,” she shares. “We’ve been working with those aged 12 and above. 12 is a good [age] to get them going, because when they’re younger, we want them to just enjoy sports.” The talents who are identified later on are put through a developmental programme to focus on their technique and prepare them to compete at the national level, either in competitions or trials, before they are nominated to represent Singapore at international or major competitions.
Community support is also important to a para‑athlete’s journey to success. “I’d like to shout out to Singaporeans to please support the athletes representing Singapore at the upcoming Paralympic Games in Paris, whether with an encouraging message on your social media, [or by] sending them off at the airport or welcoming them home,” enthuses Teo‑Koh. “To be able to qualify for the Paralympics, they’re already winners. Your support would really give them the encouragement to keep pushing, to keep trying, to keep living up to that faith that you have in them.”
For Teo‑Koh, the SDSC’s work is more than just supporting the elite para‑athletes; it also runs programmes for persons with disabilities “to live better through sports”. She explains: “Our programmes allow them to be part of all the benefits of holistic development. This is the pathway that we want to work towards in moving the needle for inclusion in Singapore, because if we want persons with disabilities to be able to access the community, we also have to work with the community for [it] to be welcoming.”
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Images: Singapore Disability Sports Council
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As Senior Editor of Tatler Singapore, Hashirin champions and refines the storytelling across platforms—curating and crafting compelling profiles, cover stories and features that spotlight visionaries shaping culture, business and impact. Driven by curiosity, she draws inspiration from the artists, changemakers and trailblazers she encounters through her work. Beyond the pages of Tatler, she is an avid supporter of local theatre and delights in seeking out art in every city she visits.
