"Rings of Stars and Crescent: 70 Years of the Olympic Movement in Singapore" has been written by Peh Shing Huei, a prize-winning author and journalist.

With 233 pages, it is full of facts and figures, photographs and profiles, and tells the SNOC story right up to the gold-medal winning performance of swimmer Joseph Schooling at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

He triumphed in the 100 metres butterfly event, which he swum in a time of 50.39sec.

He and bowler New Hui Fen received the respective sportsman and sportswoman of the year prizes at the 2017 Singapore Sports Awards.

"In 1947, Britain sent out invitations to almost all its colonies, dependencies and dominions, urging entries from its vast empire for the 1948 London Olympic Games," the book's introductory notes read.

"But one crown colony was left out: Singapore. 

"The reason was somewhat comical.

"The territory did not have an Olympic Council for London to send its invitation to."

The colonial Government responded quickly by setting up the Singapore Olympic and Sports Council on May 27, 1947, and a year later the country sent its first athlete, high jumper Lloyd Valberg, to the London Olympics. 

The governing body was renamed to the SNOC in 1970 and, since then, has ensured that Singapore has had a constant presence at all levels, at Olympic Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and South-East Asian Games.

The country has hosted the latter four times. 

One of Singapore’s biggest achievements was staging the inaugural Summer Youth Olympic Games in 2010, just one year after a the Asian Youth Games in 2009. 

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach provides a congratulatory message in the new book, which also includes copies of letters and other documents that played a crucial part in the Singapore Olympic story.