Former footballer Madelin Lock shoots for honours at NBA Rising Stars Invitational

SINGAPORE – Madelin Lock is as good with her feet as she is with her hands – as a student-athlete she has proved her prowess on both the football field and basketball court.

A former Lion City Sailors academy player, the midfielder scored a hat-trick in her final game for the club’s Women’s Premier League team in 2023.

And on May 23, the Hwa Chong Institution basketball captain, 18, led her team to the National School Games A Division girls’ title.

Football and basketball are her favourite sports, but in 2023 the Singaporean quit football to focus on the latter as she wants to “pave the way” for the next generation.

“I realised that in football, a lot of my teammates want to go pro, and there are a lot of opportunities given to footballers, such as the Unleash The Roar! (scholarship),and people like Danelle Tan have already paved the way,” said Lock, on the sidelines of a clinic held by the National Basketball Association (NBA) at Spectra Secondary School on May 30.

“So I was hoping that, since I had the option, that I could do either one… I wanted to try and pave the way for basketball, because basketball has a very special place in my heart, I just love training by myself, and I feel I could train for hours.”

The 1.60m point guard will be part of the Hwa Chong team who will compete in the NBA Rising Stars Invitational, the league’s first regional basketball tournament for youths aged 18 and under, from June 25 to 29 at the Kallang Alive precinct.

The event will feature high school teams from 11 countries and