Swimmer Quah Ting Wen defends brother for Rio Olympics media snub
Siblings Quah Ting Wen (left) and Quah Zheng Wen. TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — National swimmer Quah Ting Wen has hit out at the “naysayers and keyboard warriors” who criticised her brother after his snubbing of the local media at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
In a lengthy post on her Facebook page, Ting Wen, 24, defended her younger sibling Zheng Wen who was lambasted by local journalists and netizens for not stopping to speak to reporters after a race.
Ting Wen’s post was shared by Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin, who used her note to encourage “all our sportsmen who are out there battling in the arena, and yet being attacked from behind by the keyboard typists” to adopt her spirit.
“For a brief moment, I wish I knew just what their names are and what they look like, and perhaps a dissection of every accomplishment they have ever achieved,” said Ting Wen, who finished 35th in the 100m butterfly heats at the Rio Olympics.
“I would like them to come forth and tell me to my face that Singapore has been wasting her time and money on sending us to the Olympics, that my ‘poor upbringing’ has led me to be rude and aloof, not because I just didn’t know what to tell the media after feeling like a damn failure.”
Ting Wen added that her 19-year-old brother, who made the semi-finals of the 100m and 200m butterfly in Rio, is “young, a teenager still, and can be quite abrasive when having a bad day”.
“My brother never denied the reporters of an interview. There were just more important things to be taken care of first: lactic testing, recovery nutrition, warm-down swim, reflection with the coach,” she explained.
“He had another event coming up, (and) that took priority over all else, including the ‘obligation’ of speaking to the media. He never said never, he just meant not now.
“He will learn in time, how to handle himself. Time and experience will bring forth growth.
“I have to admit, my brother is not one for false pretences and social masks. What you see is what you get, which can sometimes put you at a disadvantage when you are required to be in the public eye, on the world stage, competing on the highest level.
“But that does not mean that he would turn away an interview.
“Knowing him, he needed time alone, to reflect, to grief, (and) to come to terms at how years of work leading up to that moment did not pan out exactly the way he wanted it to.
“Exhausted and in pain, not just physically, but emotionally too - should he have stopped and given a panting dissection of his swim, as well as how he truly felt?
“I can go on and on, but then I sit back and I ask myself why. These people have no names, no faces, (and) they are no one to me.
“They can say what they like, and I hope it gives them the tiny bit of satisfaction they are so desperately seeking, because at the end of the day, I am the one fortunate enough to have been able to find something in this fleeting span of time on Earth that I am truly passionate about.
“I am the Olympian. I am the one they are trying to tear down, not vice-versa.”
