Athlete-Friendly Academic Pathway Speeds Up Success

2019 Asian Open Short Track Speed Skating Trophy

In Singapore’s birthday month of August, Singapore Sports School skater Trevor Tan Xuxuan gave the nation good news by winning Singapore’s first Asian Trophy gold medal at the 2019 Asian Open Short Track Speed Skating Trophy 1000m Junior B Men's Category in Kunming, China on 28 August. The icing on the cake was that he also set a new under-18 national record with a timing of 1:29.899s.

The two-day event featured 122 skaters from 10 countries, with Singapore fielding its biggest team of seven skaters aged 12 to 16. Among them was Sports School Secondary 1 student-athlete, Ryo Ong Yik, who won two bronze medals in Junior D Men's 777m and 1000m A Finals.

Trevor’s achievements did not come by chance. In a bid to qualify for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Trevor has taken Leave Of Absence (LOA) from Sports School’s IBDP programme to train in South Korea. He has a gruelling training schedule with four to five hours spent on ice each day from as early as 5am.

Sports School’s athlete-friendly academic pathways provides for LOA to allow high-performing student-athletes to train full-time. Besides Trevor, other high-performing student-athletes who have benefitted from the LOA scheme include World No. 1 U18 paddler Koen Pang Yew En, who has set his sight on qualifying for 2024 Olympics in Paris.