Singapore at Winter Olympics 2014?!

Seriously? If this is not bullshite, I dunno what is. Talk is really cheap.

"We can dream the bold dream, and aspire to do more," said Teo on the sidelines of the launch of SuperSports Arena, a new, free 24-hour sports channel by local telco StarHub at the Toa Payoh Swimming Complex.

"We have won a second medal at the summer Olympic Games, so why not have an athlete at the Winter Olympics?

"It is possible and if we put our hearts and minds to it, we could have our first representative at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

"We intend to look into a project towards grooming two or three Singapore athletes for that. We'll start small. We're inspired by many tropical countries who send athletes to the Winter Games.

"Countries like Ghana, Jamaica and India (can) send athletes to Winter Olympics ... Nothing is impossible."

Erm... 2014 is less than 4 years away. I dun think novice participants from any country can spend less than 4 years preparing for competition at the Olympics level.

The only reason why we won that second Summer Olympic Medal is because we bought off-the-shelf players from China. It's NOT because we Singaporeans dreamt big, trained damn hard for 10 years, and went for the medal. That sporting spirit of tenacity and passion was bought off the shelf, coz as it happens... the policy-makers had access to national funds to 'dream the bold dream and aspire to do more'.

If creating sports stars for Singapore is meant to enhance national identity, this is going nowhere. This is more like paying someone to take your exams on your behalf. Still not clear why we are spending so much money on buying Olympic medals.

Regardless, with no time left for training plus plenty of administrative gusto and funding, this report sounds like we are being prepped for their impending decision to buy more sports people from some sports people factory, put them in a red and white T-shirt with the Singapore Flag, and make them sing Majulah Singapura with a foreign accent at the next Winter Olympics.

If we really have to buy a medal, we may as well make sure we buy the best there is.

Hmmm... I know oredi!

Let's go for Kim Yu Na of South Korea. She's exceptional at her sport (confirmed world champion at figure-skating... nothing less), and commercially profitable (this beautiful sportsgirl models for Samsung phones and is South Korea's Tourism Ambassador 2010-2012), suggesting great ROI beyond the medals.

She started skating at the age of 7, and is 20 this year. These things, as you can see, don't happen overnight.

Oh wait... Nobody said we are gunning for the gold medal. We just want Olympic medals... So buying second-best sportspeople for individual events will produce better yield.