16 Star In 15th Anniversary Book

Singapore Sports School 15th Anniversary Celebrations Cum Awards Night 2019: 15th Anniversary Commemorative Book

By Chong Wei Guan

Alumnus, Track and Field Academy

Posted: 15 February 2019

The Champions Way. Fifteen stories of student-athletes – past and present – share about their joys and struggles of their journey towards becoming a champion at One Champions Way.

The book produced to commemorate Singapore Sports School’s 15th Anniversary showcases 16 student-athletes and alumni from each of the 15 years, except one year which features a pair of twins.

The book begins proper with sprinter Calvin Kang Li Loong, a student-athlete who enrolled as the pioneer batch in 2004. Calvin was one of Sports School’s first two representatives at the Olympic Games. He donned national colours at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, together with swimmer Tao Li.

Singapore’s butterfly queen shares about her sport journey towards becoming a two-time Olympian – and also the first female Singaporean swimmer to make an Olympic final, finishing 5th – as well as her present role in developing future swim stars for Singapore. Little do people know, Tao Li – a 29-time gold medallist at the Southeast Asian Games and two-time Asian Games gold medallist – was, in her own words, a “Chinese reject” after being deemed too short for the Chinese National Team when she was only in her early teens. She followed her family to Singapore and continued her education in Singapore while pursuing her sport aspirations. Tao Li enrolled in Singapore Sports School in 2006 and improved by leaps and bounds to become one of Singapore’s best swimmers.

The journey of each athlete has qualities that reflect Sports School’s values of Respect, Integrity, Responsibility, Excellence and Resilience.

In 2010, triathlete Christy Jeremia Suriadi met with a road accident whilst on her way to training. Doctors told her she would never be able to compete again. Yet, Christy went against all odds and competed at the Kuala Lumpur 2017 SEA Games, emerging a creditable 4th place in the Women’s Triathlon.

Another sport champion featured in the book is Table Tennis student-athlete Zhou Jingyi was already one of Singapore’s top youth table tennis players when she joined Sports School in 2018 in Secondary 1. At 12 years old, Jingyi was crowned 2017 World Hopes champion, and about a year later, became Singapore’s first paddler to rank amongst the top five in the World Under 15 Singles ranking.

The commemorative book was launched by Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies Tharman Shanmugaratnam at Sports School’s 15th Anniversary Celebrations cum Awards Night 2019 on 13 February 2019. Mr Tharman, who penned the Foreword, was Guest-of-Honour at the 15th Anniversary Celebrations.

Featured Student-Athletes and Alumni

2004: Calvin Kang Li Loong

2005: Christopher Hwang Eu Wei

2006: Tao Li

2007: Kimberly Lim Wei Yan

2008: Muhammad Jaris Goh Ali Akbar Goh

2009: Adam Swandi

2010: Christy Jeremia Suriadi

2011: Sabrina Chau Shu Ning

2012: Yeo Jia Min

2013: Amita Marie Nicolette Berthier

2014: Michele Petrova Lau Xin Ling and Phebe Meredith Lau Zhi Ling

2015: Matthew James Lim Quan Rong

2016: Callie Siah Yong Xin

2017: Clydi Chan

2018: Zhou Jingyi