Para badminton player Tay Wei Ming won’t let setbacks get in way of Paralympics dream

Para-badminton player Tay Wei Ming will be competing in the June 3-9 Asean Para Games in Cambodia. ST PHOTO: RYAN CHIONG

SINGAPORE – For the last four years, Tay Wei Ming’s sole focus has been to get to the 2024 Paralympics.

It has been a journey fraught with frustrations and challenges for the para-badminton player, who has had to overcome several setbacks in pursuit of his dream.

In 2020, he was dropped from the Sport Excellence Scholarship (spexScholarship), which offers support to athletes deemed to have the potential to excel on the Asian and world stage. This, coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic, limited Tay’s opportunities to compete.

Months later, the 34-year-old came agonisingly close to qualifying for the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 – the world No. 9 missed out by one spot as only the top eight in the SU5 men’s singles qualified.

While he was disappointed not to make the cut, it was also a time of introspection for Tay, who was born with Erb’s palsy, a condition that damaged the nerves in his right arm.

He said: “Things happen for a reason. When I was taken out of the scholarship programme and I didn’t manage to qualify for Tokyo, that period was quite near to each other, so it was a tough period of time and I started to reflect on myself to see if there was anything that would help me continue my journey.”

Determined to plough on to the Paris Games, Tay made a slew of changes, which included parting ways with his coach of 10 years.

He then teamed up with former Nanyang Polytechnic teammates Victor Sim and Ooi Yu Hen, whom he feels has helped fine-tune his game by making adjustments to technical aspects such as his hand skills.

Tay, who was the first Singaporean to win gold at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Para-Badminton World Championships in 2017, also began crowdfunding for his Paralympic campaign.

With only the top eight in the world earning Paralympic berths, he is looking to compete in as many tournaments as he can until the qualification window closes in March 2024. Raising sufficient funds to cover expenses for overseas competitions is a concern, with the cost of sending an athlete and a coach to each event coming up to about $8,000.

He has sent more than 100 e-mails to potential sponsors in the past few years but received only a handful of responses.

Those who replied positively have helped cover some of the targeted sum of $80,000 and Tay, who is coaching part-time, has since raised $30,000 via crowdfunding and is aiming for another $20,000.

After missing out on tournaments for two years, he made his competitive return at the Bahrain Para Badminton International in May 2022.

But his comeback was short-lived as he underwent a minor operation in mid-2022 for a protruding disc in his spine that kept him out of action for the next two to three months, which resulted in him missing out on the 2022 Asean Para Games in Solo, Indonesia.

At the Uganda Para Badminton International, he made a winning comeback by capturing the SU5 singles for his third international title – and his first since 2018.

He said: “It was a morale booster. I didn’t think I would come back from recovery so fast to compete. I wasn’t in tip-top condition but it was a good opportunity to gain back that exposure.”

Now, Tay will compete in his first Asean Para Games in six years from June 3-9 and he is aiming to improve on his bronze from Kuala Lumpur.

Tay said: “For every APG, I will still have some nerves because, for para-badminton, the powerhouses are still in South-east Asia. So, naturally, the competitors there are tougher. This time I’m going in with a different mindset since I’m an old-timer – just enjoy the process because I never know when my last Asean Para Games will be.”

Those who are keen to donate to Tay can do so at www.giving.sg/singapore-disability-sports-council/supportweiming

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