Written by: Daryl Chin
Edited by: Chen Kexin and Lydia Ong
Photos by: SMC Publicity
This year, Eusoff’s male and female swim team both have an arsenal of strong swimmers. Amongst the sea of swimmers, two have emerged as the ones to look out for this upcoming IHG. Introducing our male and female freshie representatives for swimming - Kee Juan and Shannon!
Kee Juan started the sport at the tender age of 6 and also because his mum threw him straight into swimming lessons and forced him to learn the sport. Being a tiger mum, she had this grand plan of getting him good at swimming and eventually, he would be able to DSA into a good school with the sport. He still remembers his previous coach who was from China and had a totally different culture, throwing him into the pool with a float on his back, leaving him to paddle in the water helplessly. All these factors definitely contributed in some way as he turned out to be such a fine swimmer.
When asked how this sport changed his life, Kee Juan said that the intense amounts of training helped to instill discipline in him which also shaped him into the person he is today. He also cheekily said that swimming is the only sport that he can play as he tried doing land sports and it was a no go for him :(
Despite the intensity of the sport, Kee Juan still loves the sport because it’s pretty chill as he does not have to communicate with anyone. He says that “it’s just you and yourself. You can’t blame anyone and neither can anyone blame you for your mistakes.”
Thinking back, Kee Juan did not really like the sport last time as he was always forced to go for trainings. However, this changed after he realised that swimming moulded his character. His favourite memory from the sport was when this guy pushed him onto a landrope, causing him to bleed badly. Even though it sounds terrible, he says that his injury allowed him to skip trainings so it’s chill.
Next up, we have our female freshie representative - Shannon!
Shannon also started swimming when she was 6 and the reason why she started the sport was because her immune system was SOOO weak that her parents thought picking up a sport like swimming would help strengthen her immunity.
Having swam for so long, swimming changed Shannon’s life as it taught her many life lessons and also allowed her to make many valuable friendships which she cherishes dearly. She loves the support she gets during competitions, and remembers the times when her friends cheered for her during her competitions which definitely boosted her morale and confidence by a ton.
When asked how she benefited from the sport, she says that she has learnt to “suck it up” and not give up everytime she struggles during training! Deep down, she just wishes her coach would cut her swim set instead of just merely encouraging her :( However, her coach is still an important person in her swim journey as he always salvages her broken heart after her bad swims and makes her feel better during her teary moments.
Ending off, Shannon gave the perfect quote to summarize her love for the Eusoff swim team with “Eusoff WANSUI!” while Kee Juan is just “chilling through life~~”
Make sure to catch these two stellar freshies at this year’s IHG as they swim their hearts out for Eusoff!
Comments