President Tharman Shanmugaratnam cited the enduring spirit and “never say die” attitude of several athletes, including (clockwise from top left) Yeo Jia Min, Loh Kean Yew, Shanti Pereira and Gan Ching Hwee. - Photo: ST
SINGAPORE: On the eve of National Day, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam posted a tribute to the courage of Singapore’s 23 athletes competing at the Paris Olympics.
Tharman cited the enduring spirit and “never say die” attitude of several athletes in a Facebook post on Thursday (Aug 8).
He recalled how, despite suffering an agonising last-16 exit, world No. 20 badminton player Yeo Jia Min “had her guts with her” as she took on the higher-seeded world No. 10 Aya Ohori.
“We all felt her anguish when she lost in a heart-stopping deciding game, going down 22-24 after three tie-breakers... Anguish after thousands of hours of training, and knowing that it is you who could just have won,” he wrote.
“She was like the others who put up stirring performances against higher seeded players, in the charged Olympics stadiums.
"Each fighting hard, and even when losing, could hold their heads high.”
Fellow badminton player Loh Kean Yew made it to the quarter finals, equalling the best result by a Singaporean badminton player at the Olympics, but lost to eventual champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
Tharman, however, focused on Loh becoming a new father just before the Olympics, congratulating him and his wife on “gaining a new born medal”.
He also wrote about the Republic’s fastest female athlete Shanti Pereira, who missed out on her pet event, the Olympic 200m finals, after finishing last in her repechage heat.
Runners who fail to advance out of the first round are given a second shot through a repechage for certain events.
Only the winners of the four repechage heats and the next two fastest qualify for the semi-finals.
Tharman noted how, despite her competing at a disadvantage in Paris, owing to an injury that took her out for eight weeks earlier in 2024, Pereira is already looking to the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Also mentioned were swimmer Gan Ching Hwee, who did not advance in Paris but set two national records and personal bests in the women’s 800m freestyle and 1500m; teenage table tennis debutant Izaac Quek; and kayaker Stephenie Chen.
Chen is through to the 500m K1 semi-finals on her Olympic debut.
Tharman noted how she was “behind a strong field in the initial round, but has since shaken off her nerves”.
“Our future lies in our unbreakable Singapore spirit,” he wrote.
“Through the highs and the lows, never let go of that Singapore spirit, (and) each of us too being able to say ‘I gave my all’.”
Singapore’s medal hopes continue with 17-year-old Max Maeder who is in the men’s kitefoiling final at the Marseille Marina. - The Straits Times/ANN
