Passing the baton for Singapore’s gender equal vision through sports

Author: Mayumi Sato, 30 for 2030 Network

Photo: Courtesy of Sara Merican

Growing up in Singapore, Sara Merican, 28, has always possessed a strong affinity for sports. Even today, Merican fondly recants early memories of playing football in her grandparents’ garden and attending football camps with her sister. It is this strong foundation and love nurtured for all sports throughout her life which led her to years of rigorous training and competitive play. Even as a postgraduate student in Film Studies at the University of Cambridge, she balances her time between her studies as a student-athlete.

But it was a coincidental encounter at the University of Cambridge Sports Fair in September 2022, when Merican developed interest in cricket. She began to train intensively in the sport, while simultaneously negotiating and balancing her studies and career to pursue her athletic dreams. Running intervals up and down the street and spending hours at the gym for strength training, Sara had to finetune the balance with career plans and a healthy social life.

And the tenacity certainly paid off. Merican now represents Singapore on the cricket national team, having just competed for her country at the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia last year. 

But the journey to Team Singapore hasn’t always been an easy one. Being a woman athlete in Singapore has come with its own challenges and barriers. “In football or rugby, you would receive comments, like it’s not very ladylike to be playing that sport, or it’s such a rough sport, why are you doing it?” Merican explained. With limited opportunities for coverage, sponsorship, and public visibility, elite women athletes in Singapore are obliged to sacrifice heaps to pursue their sport.

Such barriers are not unique to Singapore. These challenges remain pervasive across the Asia-Pacific. Women are often not able to play sports that fall outside the purview of gendered expectation. In many parts of the region, women and girls are often dissuaded from pursuing sports due to patriarchal norms, societal expectations, and lack of mentorship.

In recent years, Singapore has been making a concerted effort to invest in women’s sports and Merican is one of many young leaders today who is emblematic of this. Merican hopes to serve as a role model to other young women at home and abroad, and to inculcate an inclusive culture for all gendered participation in sports. 

For Merican, she attributes strong parental support to one of the enabling conditions of her success. Similarly, she hopes to encourage women’s participation and recognition in the sporting world, and increase awareness around women’s health in sports. She will continue this dream as a footballer on Wigan Athletic Women's team in Manchester this fall.

“For most of my life I wanted to be an athlete that was good at my sport, but I realized now my ambitions have changed,” Merican reflected. “I’m more focused on improving opportunities for the next generation, empowering youth, and about awareness of gender-specific nutrition and psychology.”