SINGAPORE - Hours after he was crowned badminton world champion, Loh Kean Yew found himself upgraded to a business class seat for his return flight from Huelva, Spain, to Singapore.
But instead of revelling in his new title and the perks that accompanied it, the 24-year-old thought of his team. Instinctively he asked if national singles coach Kelvin Ho and physiotherapist Ho Jiaying could be upgraded too.
The Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) had brought forward his flight by a day to Monday (Dec 20) so he could get treatment for his injured ankle, and after his request to SBA, all three flew on business class.
"My support team also deserves support," Loh told The Straits Times matter of factly. "Behind the scenes, my coach has been helping me with the strategies and admin work, and after the semi-final, when I couldn't walk, the physio worked on my foot from 10.30pm to 1.30am just so I could walk the next day."
And Loh did not just walk on Sunday.
He flew about the court chasing every shuttle, and his relentless, aggressive approach helped him beat India's world No. 14 Kidambi Srikanth 21-15, 22-20 in the World Championships final.
His Instagram bio now reads "2021 Badminton World Champion" and he is expected to rise to world No. 15 on Tuesday, but Loh insisted many things will remain the same.
These include his character, hunger, work ethic, goals and just the joy he derives from the sport he picked up when he was five as his family played badminton in front of their Penang terraced house, using the gate as a net.
He added: "Yes, I won the world championships, but there's still a long way to go and I'm just getting started. There's still so much I can improve on and so many things I still want to achieve.
"This world title gives me that extra motivation and belief to know that I'm on the right track and I will continue to work hard to try and achieve more success, including a medal at the next Olympics."
This will not be his first life-changing moment, as Loh looks back at the decision to follow in his third brother Kean Hean's footsteps to enrol at the Singapore Sports School in 2010, which eventually led to him receiving Singapore citizenship five years later.
Laughing, he said: "I was angry at that time because my friends were all in Malaysia. But my mother already bought the ticket, so what to do?
"But in Singapore, I had good opportunities to study and play on an international stage. Along the way, so many people from SBA, Sport Singapore, Singapore Sport Institute and many others supported and took good care of me, and I wouldn't be what I am today without all their help."
There was an unexpected benefactor along his journey to the top.
Loh's first taste of improbable success came in 2009 when he beat Lee Zii Jia to win Malaysia's National Junior Grand Prix Under-12 final. He then stunned two-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion Lin Dan in the 2019 Thailand Masters final.
But the coronavirus pandemic struck at the end of that year, affecting his preparations for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where he narrowly lost to Indonesia's world No. 8 Jonatan Christie and missed out on the knockout stage.
The eventual champion, Denmark's world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen, then invited him to join his training camp in Dubai for a month in August-September. It was another watershed moment.
Loh said: "I learnt from the best. I experienced the intensity at which he trained, I saw how focused and consistent he was, and I tried to apply this to my own game. I also saw gaps in my game and tried to fix them.
"After that, I was up and down, screwed up a few times, won the Dutch Open and Hylo Open but got knocked out early at the Denmark and French Opens and the Indonesia Masters. But I kept going, kept trying to be better than the day before, and never gave up."
And on his fifth attempt, he finally beat Axelsen, this time in the opening round of the World Championships en route to becoming Singapore's first badminton world champion.
When asked what this achievement meant, he replied in typical selfless fashion.
"It shows we can accomplish great things as a small country if we dare to dream and work for it," said Loh.
"Hopefully, this will raise the level of interest and support for local sports and we can achieve more sporting glory for Singapore."
From Penang boy to world champion
1997: Loh Kean Yew is born in Penang, Malaysia, the youngest of four brothers.
2004: He stops playing badminton - a sport he picked up as a family activity at age five - after being laughed at by his brothers' friends.
2006: He joins third brother Loh Kean Hean to train at a badminton academy in Penang.
2009: An unfancied Loh beats Lee Zii Jia to win the Under-12 final of Malaysia's National Junior Grand Prix.
2010: Enrols at the Singapore Sports School on a scholarship.
2014: Drops out of Republic Polytechnic to pursue badminton full-time.
2015: Receives Singapore citizenship. He wins the men's singles and men's team bronzes at the SEA Games in Singapore.
2016-2018: Loh serves as a transport operator in the army for his national service, earning the rank of corporal first class. He plays for the Singapore Armed Forces Sports Association and is named its best sportsman in 2018.
2019: Ranked 125th, Loh stuns Chinese legend and two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan 21-19, 21-18 in the Thailand Masters final to pick up his first Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Tour Super 300 title.
He also beats two former World Championships bronze medallists - Vietnam's Nguyen Tien Minh and Denmark's Jan O. Jorgensen - before winning a silver medal at the SEA Games in Manila.
2020: Loh adds further scalps, beating Japanese World No. 10 Kanta Tsuneyama at the Indonesia Masters and Taiwanese World No. 2 Chou Tien-chen at the Badminton Asia Team Championships.
2021
July 27: World No. 42 Loh's first Olympics ends at the group stage. He beats 172nd-ranked Aram Mahmoud but loses to Indonesia's World No. 7 Jonatan Christie.
August-September: Spends a month training with Denmark's Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen and four other top-60 players in Dubai.
Oct 17: World No. 41 Loh beats India's 25th-ranked Lakshya Sen 21-12, 21-16 to win the Dutch Open, an International Challenge event.
Nov 8: World No. 39 Loh wins the Hylo Open in Germany after Malaysia's eighth-ranked Lee retires with a back injury, and becomes the first Singaporean to win a BWF World Tour Super 500.
Nov 28: World No. 26 Loh loses to World No. 2 Axelsen in the Indonesia Open final. Three days earlier, he had shocked Japan's World No. 1 Kento Momota in the opening round.
Dec 19: World No. 22 Loh upsets India's World No. 14 Srikanth Kidambi 21-15, 22-20 in the final to become Singapore's first badminton world champion. He also beat top-ranked Axelsen en route to the title.
