SINGAPORE — Olympic rower Joan Poh is heading into one of the biggest races of her career with S$54,000 in backing — but the fundraising drive that helped get her there is also shining a spotlight on a much larger question facing Singapore sport: How much should national athletes have to fight for funding before they can fight for medals?
Poh, 35, is preparing to compete at the 2026 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam from August 24 to 30, where she has set herself an ambitious goal: finish among the world’s top eight.
That would be a major breakthrough for Singapore rowing. According to CNA, the country’s best previous finish at the championships was 17th place in 2013.
World Rowing confirms that this year’s championships will be staged at the historic Bosbaan in Amsterdam, with racing beginning on August 24. The venue previously hosted the world championships in 1977 and 2014 and is again expected to attract many of the sport’s leading crews.
S$54,000 Raised — From Athletes, Businesses and the Public
The most striking part of Poh’s latest campaign may not be what happened on the water, but what happened before she even reached the starting line.
Singapore’s sporting community, private donors and businesses helped raise S$54,000 to support Poh and the wider national rowing programme.
The money includes S$20,000 from local food-and-beverage chain Mr Bean, comprising financial assistance and meal vouchers.
Another S$15,000 came from individual donors, with that amount matched dollar-for-dollar through the One Team Singapore Fund, bringing that portion of the fundraising effort to S$30,000.
Then came an unusual act of athlete-to-athlete solidarity.
Singapore’s national women’s tchoukball team donated the entire S$4,000 cash prize it received after earning the Meritorious Team Award at the Singapore Sports Awards.
Captain Tan Wan Ying told CNA that her players understood the financial pressure because they face similar problems when travelling for international competition.
The donation was especially significant because the tchoukball players themselves have to raise money for overseas competitions.
Where the Money Is Going
The funds are not simply paying for one plane ticket to Amsterdam.
According to CNA, part of the S$54,000 will cover living costs for Poh and her coach in the Netherlands, while some of the money has already gone towards training camps, selection events and preparations involving other Singapore national rowers.
That distinction matters.
Poh has stressed that the campaign is not solely about her individual result in Amsterdam. She sees it as part of a broader attempt to build momentum for rowing in Singapore, particularly with the country looking towards the 2029 SEA Games.
Singapore Rowing currently lists Poh as a member of its senior national team, alongside Tan Hui Er, under a programme led by head coach Giorgio Tuccinardi and assistant coach Jake Green.
Joan Poh Has Been Here Before
The financial struggle surrounding Poh’s latest campaign is not entirely new.
Years before qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics, she was already confronting the high cost of elite rowing.
A 2021 Straits Times report estimated that Poh’s Olympic pursuit had required spending of roughly S$20,000 a year by her estimate, while a team official placed the figure closer to S$30,000 annually.
She received sponsorship and Sport Singapore assistance but also relied heavily on personal savings and crowdfunding.
An earlier crowdfunding campaign for her Tokyo Olympic journey described expenses involving overseas coaching, travel, training camps and equipment — costs that can be particularly difficult for athletes from sports without massive commercial followings.
Poh eventually made it to the Tokyo Games, competing in the women’s single sculls.
World Rowing’s official records show that she raced through the heats, repechage, E/F semifinal and Final E at the Olympic regatta, finishing the latter race in 8 minutes 21.23 seconds.
Team Singapore also lists her as an Olympian and notes that she has balanced her rowing career with her work as a senior staff nurse at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she returned to healthcare duties while continuing to train towards Olympic qualification.
The Bigger Question: Who Pays for Elite Sport?
Poh’s story has reopened a long-running debate about how Singapore supports athletes in sports that do not enjoy football-sized audiences, major commercial leagues or deep sponsorship markets.
Singapore athletes do have access to public support programmes.
CNA noted that Sport Singapore provides schemes covering areas such as training, education and competition expenses. These include the Sports Excellence Scholarship, or spexScholarship, as well as the Athletes’ Inspire Fund, which may help with expenses such as competition registration, flights and accommodation.
But availability of support does not necessarily mean every athlete or every overseas campaign will be fully financed.
For smaller National Sports Associations, the uncertainty can make long-term planning difficult.
Rowers may require overseas training camps, specialised coaching, equipment, physiotherapy, strength-and-conditioning facilities and extended periods away from work.
Poh told CNA that financial constraints have previously forced decisions over which athletes could attend races or training camps.
That can create an uncomfortable cycle.
Athletes need international competition to improve.
International competition requires money.
But attracting sponsors can become easier only after an athlete achieves international visibility or major results.
For athletes trying to reach that level in the first place, the gap can be enormous.
Sport Versus Career
There is another cost that does not always appear on fundraising totals: time.
Former national fencer and sports administrator Nicholas Fang told CNA that Singapore athletes frequently have to balance elite sport against education, National Service, careers and family responsibilities.
Some competitors use annual leave or unpaid time off simply to represent the country internationally.
For rowing, the problem can be amplified because prolonged overseas training may be necessary to access different climates, facilities, coaching environments and competitive fields.
Corporate support could therefore make a difference not only by paying bills but by allowing athletes to spend more time actually training.
Deloitte Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia sports business leader James Walton told CNA that companies can also gain value from athlete partnerships — particularly when competitors have compelling personal journeys that connect with audiences beyond medals alone.
Singapore Rowing Is Looking Beyond One Athlete
There is a broader strategic reason Poh’s campaign matters.
Singapore Rowing has been attempting to expand the sport, including through coastal rowing, a discipline that is set to feature at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The association has previously spoken about building its athlete pipeline and raising coaching standards while acknowledging that resources remain an obstacle.
Poh’s World Championships campaign therefore sits at the intersection of two ambitions.
One is immediate: see how high a Singapore rower can climb against the world’s best in Amsterdam.
The other is much bigger: build a system capable of producing more international-level rowers without requiring each generation to repeatedly solve the same funding problem from scratch.
Amsterdam Could Become More Than Just Another Race
For Poh, a top-eight finish would be historic.
But whether she reaches that target or not, the S$54,000 fundraising drive has already revealed something important about the ecosystem around Singapore’s less-commercial sports.
National athletes are finding support.
Businesses are stepping forward.
Members of the public are donating.
Even athletes from other cash-strapped sports are helping one another.
The uncomfortable question is why such extraordinary efforts are sometimes necessary simply to give elite athletes the opportunity to compete internationally.
When Poh lines up at the Bosbaan, the stopwatch will determine where she finishes.
But another contest is unfolding away from the water — whether Singapore can build a sporting system in which athletes spend more of their energy chasing world-class performances, and less of it chasing the money required to get to the starting line.
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