Singapore’s Danny Yeo Suffers Setback With Dengue Fever

A Singapore National Training Center squad member has hit a major snag in his preparations for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

World Cup silver medalist Danny Yeo has just been diagnosed with dengue fever, the illness carried by mosquitoes, which leads to such symptoms as severe headache, joint pain and muscle pain.

Yeo is expected to be out of the water for at least two weeks to recover from the infection. Although Yeo currently holds Olympic B qualifying times in the 100m/200m/400m freestyle events, the 25-year-old was hoping to snag at least one A qualifying mark at next month’s Singapore National Age Group Championships.

Said Yeo to The Straits Times about how his time off may impact his Rio dreams, “If I said it wouldn’t affect me, it would be a lie. But the tests are looking better now so I might be going back to swimming next week.”

“I would probably clock a better timing at Snag if this didn’t happen. But I’m still going to give my all for the trials, and just believe in the process,” Yeo said.

National assistant coach Gary Tan focuses on Yeo’s recovery, saying, “We believe that Danny is still in the running to do his best at Snag [Singapore National Age Group Championships] and try for an Olympic spot. What’s important for us is to ensure that he recovers fully. His health is of utmost importance to us. He needs to be in good health before anything.”

This is the second setback suffered by the Singaporean National Team in recent weeks, as breaststroker Roanne Ho suffered a collapsed lung late last month.

The CDC estimates that more than a third of the world’s population lives in areas at risk for dengue fever infection and as many as 400 million people are infected yearly.

Canada’s Annamay Pierse, 2010 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist, came down with a nasty case of dengue fever after that year’s event in Delhi, India, as the athletes’ village was located close to the Yamuna River’s mosquitoes.