By Chia Han Keong

FORGIVE us sports fanatics for being a tad nonplussed about last week's monumental event.

You know, the one where the United States elected its first black president. While the political world went ga-ga over Mr Barack Obama's successful election, many sports fans merely shrugged, and fervently discussed Formula One's first black winner Lewis Hamilton, also crowned last week.

In truth, the race barrier has already been battered down many times over in sport, since as early as the 1930s. Indeed, we are almost inclined to ask our friends in political circles: "What took you so long?"

In 1936, Jesse Owens shot Adolf Hitler and his theory of Aryan supremacy to smithereens at the Berlin Olympics, by winning four golds in front of the Fuhrer.

Two years later, Joe Louis became boxing's first black champion, ironically becoming the sport's "Great White Hope" as he beat Germany's Max Schmeling during those war-torn times.

Within a decade, Jackie Robinson became the first black player in Major League Baseball. Within another 10 years, Althea Gibson stepped out of Harlem and into the tennis elite.

Muhammad Ali then became a hugely-divisive - and eventually unifying - sports figure in the 1960s and 70s, as he raged against the Vietnam War and fought legendary battles against Joe Frazier and George Foreman in the boxing ring.

Recent breakthroughs include basketball great Michael Jordan, golf's world No. 1 Tiger Woods and, of course, Hamilton.

It's not just the blacks. China came from nowhere in the 1980s to dominate badminton and table tennis to such an extent that one would think that the country invented the two games. (It was the Englishmen, not the Chinese.)

Football? Hardly anyone bats an eyelid when Brazil's Ronaldinho weaves his magical dribbles.

It may seem flippant to compare sports with politics, but the essence of success is actually the same in these two public fields:

If you're good enough, you're good enough. The record speaks for itself. These racial breakthroughs in sport may very well have paved the way for our acceptance of Mr Obama. So let this be a clarion call to anyone picking up sports in Singapore. An Indian can play table tennis, a Chinese can play cricket, and a Malay can swim for a gold medal.

The road to success may not be as easy, but it is never out of bounds. If you're good enough, you're good enough.