S'pore swimming great Junie Sng regrets not competing in Olympics before retiring at 19
David Lee
The Straits Times
May 11, 2024
At 11, Junie Sng was so dominant in the swimming pool that she caught the attention of the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping - the duo shared a brief chat at the 1975 International Swimming and Diving Friendship Meet in Beijing.
Later that year, the 1.54m pocket dynamo won her first SEAP Games (now known as the SEA Games) gold in the 800m freestyle.
Her career continued to sizzle as she became Singapore's first female swimmer to win an Asian Games gold at 14, emigrated to Australia at 16, and returned to sweep 10 gold medals at the 1983 SEA Games on home soil.
At 19, she retired to focus on her university studies.
Turning 60 on June 6, Sng was back in town on May 10 for Singapore Aquatics' 85th anniversary gala fundraising dinner, where she was among the first batch of athletes inducted into its Hall of Fame.
In an interview with The Straits Times the day before, the Microsoft technical specialist shared that she "just fell into swimming" when she was six after following her older sister Elaine to the pool.
The latter had kept catching colds and a doctor had recommended to their parents - dad was an artist while mum was a teacher - to let her try a sport that would improve her lung capacity.
The late Neo Chwee Kok, a four-time Asian Games gold medallist, took the younger Sng under his wing at the Singapore Swimming Club before another late legend, Kee Soon Bee, pushed her to another level in the longer distances.
Recalling her "love-hate relationship" with swimming, she said: "The 400m and 800m free came quite naturally to me. As Mr Kee would say, I didn't have fast-twitch muscles, so long distance was my jam really... and height wasn't a factor."
Training at the Toa Payoh Swimming Complex, she would clock 10km per session to bring her times down.
She said: "Long-distance swimming is very, very hard training. It was very painful also because I was training all the time and couldn't go out much."
But she also enjoyed competing and winning.
Her father had crowdfunded in order to send her to England to compete in meets. This helped her win unprecedented women's 400m and 800m freestyle golds at the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok.
Not even the great Patricia Chan and Joscelin Yeo won an Asiad gold, with Tao Li the only Singaporean woman to do so in the 50m butterfly in 2006 and 2010.
After emigrating in 1980, she levelled up with renowned coach Bill Sweetenham and delivered seven golds at the 1981 SEA Games in Manila. She came full circle at Toa Payoh to claim 10 gold medals from eight individual and two relays at the 1983 edition.
Her winning time in the 800m freestyle was 8min 59.46sec - the first Asian woman to dip below nine minutes.
On her retirement, Sng said: "I sort of knew at that time there wasn't any career I could rely on that was going to provide income if I was going to continue my swimming. I needed to think about my future, and that's why I gave up swimming."
While she also made the 400m and 800m finals at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, her one regret was not competing at the Olympics as she retired before the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
She missed out on Montreal 1976 as Singapore swimmers were reportedly banned from competing against China, while the Republic joined the United States in boycotting Moscow 1980.
"With Bill, I did an 8:45 and unfortunately I never got to show the time in competition," said a wistful Sng, as the timing would have made her the first local swimmer to qualify for an Olympic final in 1984.
Swimming took a backseat as she focused on her family with husband Geoff Holden, who is a veteran steeplechaser.
Her two sons have inherited their stamina. Zachary, 20, used to run the 1,500m in school and is now into muay thai, while Sebastien, 16, is an Under-21 right-back with state football club Hampton East Brighton.
She does not keep track of local swimming - though she is proud of Joseph Schooling and Yip Pin Xiu's achievements at the Olympics and Paralympics respectively - and keeps fit in the gym.
Her competitive spirit remains strong. Her sister has been badgering her to participate in the 2025 World Aquatics Masters Championships in Singapore.
She declined after checking the times for her age group, noting that "I would definitely need more than just a year of training to get myself where I want to be".
Her advice for young athletes is simple. She added: "If you lose, take it on board, reflect to see where you went wrong and try to figure out and improvise your strategy. Love what you do as well. There will be times when you absolutely hate it, I know I did, but persevere."
