Rise of Professionalism in Sports

Sports, in the context of our present day society, cover a vast range of activities, such as athletics, bowling, basketball, soccer, etc. Any game or competition that is designed to test physical skill is considered a sport; hence the list of sports can go on endlessly. In the past, all these were only very simple games, but they have evolved tremendously over the years and now, have become very professional sports, with many high-tech equipment to boost the sportsman's performance. Take bowling for example; it dates all the way back to 5200 BC in Egypt, where kids literally take a ball-like object to throw at marble bars, resembling pins. It then slowly spread to other countries, where the game was gradually modified to today's ten-pin bowling. Unlike the ancient times, there are bowling alleys now, equipped with wooden or synthetic lanes with varied oiling patterns. With the advancement of technology, various equipments such as wrist-guards, bowling shoes and personal bowling balls have been invented to aid bowlers in their game. Apart from all these, there are even various techniques and skills required to achieve excellence. Therefore, these sports have indeed proved themselves to have changed significantly over the years.
Nowadays, sports have rise beyond national to international level of competition. Events, like the Olympics, SEA games, World Cup, etc. are held for countries to compete against each other in sports. Countries take special effort and capital to groom their own sportsmen to compete worldwide, but other countries prefer to recruit foreign talents instead. As for our country, our government did not care much in our involvement in the sporting arena in the past. Academic results were the most important. However, in recent years, we have produced star players, like Remy Ong, who did our country proud by winning many international tournaments. Hence, our government decided to support the rise of professionalism in sports in Singapore by