TEAM SINGAPORE FEATURES
ATHLETES
joseph schooling
swimmingSingapore's Joseph Schooling booked a ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by finishing the men's 100m butterfly event at the Southeast Asian Games in 51.84 seconds to narrowly beat the Olympic qualifying standard of 51.96 seconds.
He had held on to his 100m butterfly crown - the pet event in which he won an Olympic title in 2016 - but was pushed right to the end by teammate Quah Zheng Wen who finished only three hundredths of a second behind.
The gold medalist in the 100m butterfly at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games was also Singapore's first-ever Olympic medalist. His winning time of 50.39s is also a National, Southeast Asian, Asian and Olympic record.
He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a member of the Texas Longhorns swimming team, one of the top collegiate swim programmes under two-time United States Olympic men's head coach Eddie Reese. He first qualified for the Olympics in 2012 after winning the 200m butterfly at the 2011 SEA Games.
quah zheng wen
swimmingQuah Zheng Wen was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) amongst the male athletes at the 2019 SEA Games in Philippines, having won the highest number of medals, with a haul of six gold and two silver.
In the process, the 23-year-old also qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the 100m butterfly and 100m backstroke events.
The men's 100m butterfly event saw an amazing duel between Quah Zheng Wen and Joseph Schooling, which saw Quah leading for all but the final few metres. Matching strokes from start to finish, it was Schooling who swept home in in 51.84s with Quah a mere 0.03 seconds behind him for silver, with both managing to crack the Olympic 'A' qualifying time of 51.96s.
Quah had earlier won the men's 100m backstroke in 53.79s to become the first Singaporean swimmer to qualify for Tokyo 2020.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Quah achieved a personal best time in 200 meters butterfly in the heats to qualify for a semifinal berth at an Olympics swim competition.
JONATHAN CHAN
divingLocal diver Jonathan Chan made history by becoming the first ever Singaporean diver to qualify for the Olympics after he won the Men's 10m Platform final at the Asian Diving Cup in Malaysia back in September 2019.
That was no mean feat as Chan beat the likes of China's Wang Zewei and North Korea's Ri Kwon Hyok to claim the gold medal at the Bukit Jalil National Aquatic Centre in Kuala Lumpur.
The achievement also makes Chan the first Singaporean to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The 22-year-old had previously competed at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, and finished with two silvers as well as two bronzes at the 2017 Sea Games.
tan sze en
gymnasticsSeven years after we witnessed our very first Singaporean gymnast qualify and compete at the Olympic Games, we will be seeing another Team SG athlete compete in Gymnastics when Tan Sze En booked her place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The 19-year-old Singaporean secured her spot in the Artistic Gymnastics event after an impressive performance at the 2019 World Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.
Based in the United States, Sze En has put on hold the start of her NCAA career at Stanford University, in order to focus and prepare for Tokyo 2020.
She is just the second gymnast to achieve this feat, and follows in the footsteps of Lim Heem Wei (London 2012), the first Singaporean gymnast to compete at the Olympics for the Republic.
tesa neo
ShootingTeam Singapore sharp shooter Tessa Neo earned Singapore a spot at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games women's 10m air rifle competition, after qualifying for the event final at the Asian Shooting Championships in Doha in November 2019.
The 21-year-old eventually clinched a silver medal, becoming the first Singaporean shooter to finish on the podium in the event at the championships, finishing behind China's Yang Qian and ahead of South Korea's Jung Eun-hea.
It is the first time Singapore has earned a quota spot based on merit in the women's 10m air rifle discipline. Neo clinched it by squeezing in as the eighth and final qualifier for the competition final, with the other seven shooters already earning their Olympic spots.
At the previous Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, Jasmine Ser earned a spot after finishing first in the women's 50m three-positions event at an Asian qualifying event in New Delhi.
TEAMS
Feng Tianwei, Lin Ye,
Yu Mengyu
Table tennis team
The Singapore women's table tennis team earned their ticket to Tokyo at the World Team Qualification Tournament in Gondomar, Portugal, in a thrilling battle that went down to the wire, before edging out the Netherlands 3-2.
Teams that made the quarter-finals in the tournament earn an automatic berth to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Countries that have earned a team berth will also gain two slots in the women's singles.
Led by 2012 singles bronze medallist Feng Tianwei, along with Yu Mengyu and Lin Ye, this will the third appearance at the Olympics for the Singapore women's table tennis team since the team event was introduced in Beijing in 2008. After winning a team silver and bronze in 2008 and 2012, the team returned empty-handed from Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
kimberly lim
cecilia low
Sailing team
Singapore sailors Kimberly Lim and Cecilia Low earned the country a place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with their performance at the Hyundai 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 World Championships in Auckland back in December 2019.
Six Olympic berths were up for grabs for nations who had not already qualified at the 2018 World Championships, which marked the start of the qualifying period.
The top eight from the 2018 regatta secure Olympic qualification for their respective countries. Lim, 23, and 28-year-old Low finished in 34th place then.
In Auckland, the pair, who are the Asian Games champions, finished seventh among the countries who had not qualified for the Tokyo Games. But with each national Olympic committee allowed to take up a maximum of one berth and two teams from the US qualifying, the Singaporeans earned the last spot available.
The 49erFX made its Olympic debut at the Rio 2016 Games, where Team Singapore was represented by Griselda Khng and Sara Tan.
Singapore sailors have qualified for every edition of the Olympics since 1984, peaking at 10 sailors in seven events at Rio 2016.