Quah Ting Wen will not represent Singapore at the Paris Olympics later this month despite being confirmed last week as a member of the nation’s 4×100 medley relay.
Quah split 55.00 swimming freestyle on the anchor leg of Singapore’s 4×100 medley relay at the 2024 World Championships, where the team qualified for the Olympics with a 9th-place finish in a national record of 4:02.88. Rising Michigan senior Letitia Sim was the only member of the Singaporean quartet with an Olympic ‘A’ cut in an individual event (1:06.36 100 breast), but World Aquatics reportedly granted an exemption last week to allow three relay-only swimmers instead of two.
“After signing everything on Thursday, I took out my luggage and I was like, let’s get going (to Paris),” the 31-year-old Quah told Channel News Asia (CNA).
However, just one day after confirming Singapore’s 4×100 medley relay team of Quah, Quah’s sister, Jing Wen (58.89 butterfly), Sim (1:06.41 breaststroke), and Sim’s sister, Levenia (1:02.58 backstroke leadoff), World Aquatics reportedly reached out to Singapore Aquatics (SAQ) with an update.
Rising Indiana senior Ching Hwee Gan earned an Olympic invite courtesy of her ‘B’ cut in the 1500 free (16:10.61) from last month, but SAQ would have to choose between sending either Gan or one of the relay-only swimmers to Paris. After discussion, SAQ picked Gan and told Quah she would be unexpectedly staying home this summer.
“SAQ’s Selection Committee met and considered all permutations for the best outcome for the relay team of Letitia, Gan, and two more relay-only swimmers,” SAQ said in a statement. “The committee decided on the following line-up: backstroke (Levenia), breaststroke (Letitia), butterfly (Jing Wen) and freestyle (Gan).”
While the decision allows another Singaporean swimmer to contest an individual Olympic event, it will likely be a major blow to the nation’s 4×100 medley relay. Gan’s best 100 free time is just 58.74 from 2021 while Quah owns the national record at 54.62 from 2019. Last year, Quah was honored as the top athlete of the 2023 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games after winning six gold medals.
Quah protested to SAQ, which appealed to World Aquatics to allow the country to send six Olympic swimmers to Paris this summer. However, SAQ confirmed on Monday that the appeal was rejected.
“It would have been ideal if we could have sent six athletes to the Games,” SAQ president Mark Chay said. “We made our case to World Aquatics that in addition to the two OQT swimmers and an OCT swimmer, sending the relay team that met the Olympics qualifying position would allow Singapore to send our best possible swimmers to the Olympics.”
The lone male swimmer representing Singapore at the Paris Olympics is Jonathan Tan. The 22-year-old hit the qualifying time in the 50 free (21.91) at last year’s SEA Games. His lifetime best in the 100 free (48.80) is only about half a second shy of Joseph Schooling‘s national record (48.27 from 2016 Olympics).
Singaporean Olympic Roster
- Jonathan Tan (men’s 50 free, 100 free)
- Letitia Sim (women’s 100 breast, 200 breast, and 4×100 medley relay)
- Ching Hwee Gan (women’s 800, 1500 free, and 4×100 medley relay)
- Levenia Sim (women’s 4×100 medley relay)
- Quah Jing Wen (women’s 4×100 medley)
Absolutely one of the worst things I’ve ever read, if you tell someone they’re going to the Olympics, they HAVE to go.
So there will be B cut swimmers invited then?
From what I’ve read elsewhere, it seems like it’s an arbitrary call by World Aquatics. It’s a reversal of Tokyo when they chose Quah over Gan, but still really isn’t fair that they told her she could go and then revoked her ticket. I’m not seeing any true rule that says this.
a clerical error by World Aquatics? shocking
all in all, a shame that such a momentous occasion should be clouded by miscommunication and bureaucratic BS. I’m admittedly unfamiliar with Singapore’s selection criteria, but – in my opinion – fail to see why Sim and Gan can’t both go