SINGAPORE: Talk to any local sports official and he will tell you the same thing: The 25 athletes who will fly the Singapore flag in Beijing at the 2008 Olympics are the best prepared local team in the history of the island’s participation in such Games.

Physically, they are in prime shape, all ready to peak just when the Games open on Aug 8. Sports science has also been tapped like never before to help the likes of Tao Li to cut even a millisecond off her time at the turn in the 100m butterfly.

Biomechanists have studied hours and hours of video of table tennis opponents to learn service styles and spot weaknesses, their findings reported back to coach Liu Guodong and the six paddlers to digest ahead of their quest in Beijing.

But perhaps the biggest lesson Team Singapore must learn if they are to walk away winners is simply: It’s okay to lose.

As long as you lay it all on the line, as the Americans like to say, there is nothing else our five swimmers, six paddlers, five shuttlers, six sailors, one shooter and two track and field athletes can do.

That’s what John Limna will tell you.

The deputy director of the sports medicine and sports science division of Singapore Sports Council’s high performance group, wants our athletes to realise that doing their best is always enough.

So, the game plan must be playing to win, as opposed to “playing not to lose”.

Playing not to lose reeks of fear.

Table tennis stars and medal hopefuls Li Jiawei, Wang Yuegu and Feng Tianwei must lay it on the line with confidence, an attitude that will strike fear in opponents.

Many here complain that our athletes’ Achilles’ heel is their lack of confidence.

They point to Ronald Susilo’s straightsets defeat to Boonsak Ponsana in the quarter-finals of the badminton singles at the 2004 Athens Olympics as proof.

Susilo proved he had “game” by shocking world No 1 and gold medal favourite Lin Dan in the first round, and I watched him use it to stunning effect to reach the last eight.

But when the semi-finals and a historic medal loomed, he lost his “game”.

Then, world No 9, Susilo crumbled inexplicably against the lower-ranked Thai.

Fear shot his confidence.

I watched days later as the fear of losing gripped star paddler Li Jiawei.

As medal glory beckoned, she stumbled twice — first on the verge of qualifying for the finals and then again in the third and fourth place play-off in the women’s singles table tennis event.

In contrast, I remember watching Michael Phelps in the pool in Athens as he bid to go one better than Mark Spitz and win eight golds at a single Olympics.

He was always relaxed, his headphones always on — he loves listening to rap music before getting on the starting block. There was never a hint of fear.

The teenager chose to swim in the 200m freestyle in Greece and many felt he was making a mistake competing in Ian Thorpe’s favourite event. But Phelps, only 19 at the time, shrugged his shoulders at the press conference and said there was nothing better than to challenge swimming’s Hercules to see where you stand.

He finished third, behind the Aussie great and second-placed Pieter van den Hoogenband. He did win six golds, though, in Athens.

Already regarded by many as a modern day swimming Zeus, he is going for eight golds again in Beijing. Armed with confidence, Phelps will lay everything on the line in his bid for Olympic immortality.

And he does not fear the consequences if he fails. Despite the intense media glare, despite the pressure of trying to match or break one of the greatest records in sport, despite the difficulty, you sense Phelps is having fun chasing history.

Some of Singapore’s athletes will also be chasing glory and history in Beijing.

The women’s table tennis team have the best chance of becoming Singapore’s first Olympic medallists since Tan Howe Liang won silver 48 years ago in Rome.

Ranked No 2 in the world, only behind the Chinese, they should be very confident.

Admittedly, there’s tremendous pressure on Li, Wang and Feng. I just hope they lay everything on the line and, like Phelps, have fun in Beijing.

Do that, and they could well win a medal. Do that, and lose, and they can return home with heads held high. - TODAY/ra