SINGAPORE – To become a true force in world badminton, the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) needs to build a systematic approach to enhance the odds of producing a steady and growing pipeline of top players.
This is the vision of new SBA chief executive officer Woo Kaiwei, who starts work on April 3. He replaces Alan Ow, who stepped down at the end of 2024 and has since become the CEO of the Law Society of Singapore.
Woo told The Straits Times: “We should rely less on luck and chance, and a systematic approach means letting the whole system generate, groom and nurture talent.”
Besides identifying home-grown talent, he noted that SBA remains open to naturalising foreign-born players from South-east Asia, should such talent become available through their scouting.
He said: “I don’t think we should be precluding ourselves so narrowly in terms of talent base. Singapore has always been very open to talent, and I think that fundamental principle has not changed across the nation, including sport and badminton.”
The 40-year-old was a former Hwa Chong Junior College swimmer, whose father taught him other sports like badminton, table tennis and cycling. Woo graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Warwick and a master’s degree in contemporary China studies from Oxford University.
The former senior strategist with Mindef moved on to become the senior manager in group strategy and partnerships at Singapore Press Holdings. He was head of strategic planning and corporate development at So Drama! Entertainment before joining SBA.
SBA president Lawrence Leow said: “The final interview panel was impressed with the breadth and depth of Kaiwei’s strategic planning presentation that covered not just grassroots participation and athletes’ development, but also different aspects of stakeholders’ engagement and organisational development.”
Woo said his immediate goal is to stabilise and strengthen the SBA secretariat, engage closely with its coaches to understand what the technical team need and how they can be supported.
After the Paris 2024 Olympics, the SBA has been in a state of flux.
Besides the change in CEO, South Korean Kim Ji-hyun took over from Kelvin Ho as the national singles coach, while Ho replaced Taufiq Hidayat as coach of the national training squad. The SBA is also in the hunt for a new technical director after Martin Andrew left in August.
But Woo insisted that the SBA’s vision – to establish Singapore as a globally recognised badminton powerhouse, inspire a culture of excellence and foster a nation united by the love of the sport – does not change.
It will also continue to work towards its medium-term target of increasing the number of players in the top 20 and the Olympics as they push for medals at Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032.
Men’s singles duo Loh Kean Yew (ranked 17th) and Jason Teh (22nd), women’s singles player Yeo Jia Min (12th) and mixed doubles pair Terry Hee and Jin Yujia (33rd) are the only Singaporeans who are in the top 50 and competing actively on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour.
Woo said: “In the longer term, we want to build a sustained pool of talent, not just in the national team, but also within the national training squad and the junior performance programmes, so there will be a seamless renewal of elite players.”
To achieve its goals, the SBA aims to start from the grassroots by providing professional coaching and more playing opportunities, while taking a holistic approach in looking after the welfare of the players during and after their career.
Woo said: “We need to promote badminton vigorously at the grassroots level because that sets off the start of the entire talent pipeline. We need to do a lot to maintain badminton’s popularity and make badminton as broad-based as possible.”
With a bigger talent pool, the SBA can then expand its stable of coaches and sparring partners besides providing more training and competition opportunities for its players to gain exposure.
“I want to actually adopt a 360-degree approach, going beyond the technical aspect but also looking into conditioning, psychology, physiology, nutrition, sports science, medicine, etc, so that they are all well-supported,” said Woo.
“We are also focused on the players’ transition to their post-playing career. We are thankful to donors like JK Technology for the post-career gratuity and student-athlete scholarship programmes, but we need to have more partnerships to facilitate career counselling, job matching, and upskilling opportunities and build an entire ecosystem for our players.”
Woo acknowledged there is pressure to deliver, considering the achievements of the past five years when Singapore won a world title, one Commonwealth Games gold and several triumphs on the BWF World Tour.
He said: “But I also believe in a systematic approach in which we are working very closely as a team with the players, coaches, the secretariat, a very supportive board, as well as the entire ecosystem of partners and donors towards achieving our vision and mission.”
- David Lee is senior sports correspondent at The Straits Times focusing on aquatics, badminton, basketball, cue sports, football and table tennis.
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