National wushu athlete Kimberly Ong bids ‘bittersweet’ farewell to sport at 23

SINGAPORE – The Chinese martial art of wushu has brought plenty of pride and honour for Kimberly Ong since she picked it up at the age of six.

But in 2025, what was once a source of joy also caused pain to the Singapore athlete.

It has led the 23-year-old, who has two SEA Games golds, multiple world championship medals and an Asian Games bronze, to bring an end to a 10-year journey as a national wushu exponent.

She announced her retirement on Dec 31, 2025.

Speaking to The Straits Times on Jan 1, Ong explained that she had initially planned to retire only after the Sept 19-Oct 4 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

She is due to complete her studies at the National University of Singapore law faculty in May and will sit for her bar exams by the end of 2026.

But a nightmare 2025 on the injury front forced her to bring her plans forward.

In January, she suffered an almost complete tear in the lateral collateral ligament of her left knee.

In subsequent months, more issues cropped up during training and competition, including constant lower back muscle spasms which led to numbness of the lower limbs.

Ong said: “Every month I had a new injury, and it was just very mentally exhausting for me to recover and then train. Every time I thought I made some progress, a new injury appeared. It was very frustrating.”

But she persevered and attended a national team training camp in China in June to prepare for the Aug 31-Sept 7 World Wushu Championships in Brazil.

But Ong eventually had to withdraw from the meet and rested for several weeks.

“I would feel pain that would get so bad that I couldn’t even walk,” she said. “It was quite scary. I was training halfway and then suddenly everything just went numb.”

Told by the doctor that the best treatment was just to rest, she also went for physiotherapy to alleviate her condition.

When she returned to training at the end of August, she did so with the intention of returning to competitive ways.

“I still wanted to go back and try, go back to training and see what I can do because I really wanted to do a second Asian Games. But, after two weeks, I realised it wasn’t going to work out,” said Ong. “Because every time I tried to do something a bit more physically demanding, the pain would come back.

“I decided this was it.”

She described the feeling as “bittersweet”.

“I’m fortunate to have achieved in the sport and having gone to international competitions, so I feel very fulfilled with my career,” said Ong.

“But at the same time, it’s something that I’ve been doing daily for the past 10 years, so it feels a bit weird to not have to go to training any more.”

She said she would especially miss the time spent with her younger sister and teammate Kassandra, 20.

Ong, who will continue to contribute to the sport as a coach on the weekends with the Singapore International Wushu Cultural Centre, added: “We go to training every day together, and so now we won’t get to have that 2½ hours together, training together and helping each other.

“That part will feel empty but, other than that, I feel like I have come to peace with the decision.”

Ong, who made the switch from ballet to martial art at the age of six, retires having had several highlights on the mat in recent years.

On her SEA Games debut in Hanoi in 2022, she won the gold medal in the women’s daoshu and gunshu (broadsword and cudgel) combined event and retained her title in 2023 at the Cambodia Games.

Her event was omitted from the 2025 edition in Thailand.

At her Asian Games debut in September 2023, she clinched bronze in the women’s changquan (long fist) for Singapore’s first medal in Hangzhou. It had come amid a tough year for her on the personal front.

In January 2023, she underwent surgery to remove a cyst in her womb and was also unable to train as much as she would have liked owing to her studies.

Her bronze, which was the first Asiad medal for Singapore in the sport since 2014, drew praise from President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who highlighted her “resilience” in a speech during a Team Singapore reception that he hosted in March 2024.

In November 2023, Ong also won two silvers at the World Wushu Championships in Texas in the women’s gunshu and women’s duilian (choreographed sparring) with Zeanne Law and Zoe Tan.

Her achievements in 2023 saw her nominated for the Singapore Sports Awards’ Sportswoman of the Year in April 2024, alongside kayaker Stephenie Chen, indoor skydiver Kyra Poh, swimmer Letitia Sim, bowler Cherie Tan and the eventual winner, sprinter Shanti Pereira.

Ang Mong Seng, president of the Singapore Wushu Dragon & Lion Dance Federation, thanked Ong for “her dedication and hard work through her decade with us”.

He also paid tribute to her commitment to the sport while juggling her academics, saying: “Her remarkable success... together with her academic excellence, is a powerful reminder that sports and studies can complement each other when driven by discipline and determination.”

“While her departure is undoubtedly a loss for our wushu team, we are heartened that she continues to give back through coaching, and we hope she will inspire and uplift the next generation of athletes in a new capacity.

“As she moves towards pursuing her career in law, we wish her the very best and look forward to seeing her continue to shine.”