11-year-old Singaporean to make skateboarding debut at SEA Games 2025
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
National skateboarders Felix Balzer (left), 11, and Farris Rahman, 31, are taking part in the SEA Games for the first time.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
Joel Chang
Follow topic:
- Farris, 31, and Balzer, 11, Singaporean skateboarders who met at East Coast Park, will be making their SEA Games debuts together.
- Farris, a seasoned skater with a plethora of experience, overcame multiple injury setbacks in order to compete at the Games, which he says is already a career bonus.
- Balzer aims to do his best at the Games, with hopes to fulfil his ultimate goal of featuring at the Olympics.
AI generated
SINGAPORE – When Farris Rahman and Felix Balzer first met at a skate park in East Coast in 2022, an eight-year-old Felix was still getting to grips with the more complex skateboarding tricks.
Impressed by Farris’ advanced proficiency on the skateboard, Felix’s father asked him to teach his son a few tricks, which started a mentor-mentee relationship.
Fast forward three years, Farris, 31, and Felix, 11, will be making their SEA Games debuts together, with another Games debutante Tina Wan, 19, in the women’s category.
While the mentoring frequency has reduced recently due to Farris’ work commitments, it felt like a full-circle moment for him now that Felix is a full-fledged competitor.
The youngster, whose dream is to win an Olympic gold, finished second at the National Skateboarding Championships in August, just behind Farris as both earned their spots at the Dec 9-20 Games in Thailand.
“I’m proud of him for coming so far, so quickly. He reminds me of myself when I was younger,” said Farris, who works as a high performance sport manager with Sport Singapore.
Felix, who has skated a lot with Farris in the last two years, said he looks up to both teammates, adding: “Farris has been to a lot of international competitions. I also look up to Tina because she can also do pretty good tricks I can’t do.”
Like Farris, Felix picked up the sport at a young age. While Farris started at four after being mesmerised by his older brother’s skills, Felix got hooked after witnessing gravity-defying action at Somerset Skate Park when he was three.
From there, Felix kept honing his craft, despite some initial concerns from his mother.
Felix Balzer, 11, Singapore’s youngest athlete at the 2025 SEA Games, is hoping to put on a good showing as he makes his debut in the biennial meet.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
He has since competed in events such as the 2024 Olympic qualifiers and the Rome stop of the 2025 World Skateboarding Tour.
There will be “a bit more pressure” at the SEA Games as his teacher showed the class a photo of him taken at the flag-presentation ceremony for Team Singapore’s contingent.
“So they know about me going to the SEA Games,” said the fifth-grade pupil at German European School Singapore. “It makes me feel like there’s a bit more pressure on me, because then everybody will be watching. But also, it’s exciting to show what I can do.”
Farris Rahman has a wealth of experience, having taken part in competitions such as the X Games.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
Besides giving his young teammate advice, Farris will be on hand to help him cope with the pressure when the competition gets under way in Bangkok.
“He’s young and he doesn’t have as much exposure as me... I don’t want to overstress him, because the pressure does get to you,” said Farris.
Besides competing locally, Farris has also participated in international events such as the X Games – the premier competition for extreme sports – the Maloof Money Cup in 2012 in South Africa and the qualifiers for the 2024 Olympics.
However, his long competitive career has also seen several severe injuries. He has undergone surgery twice on each of his knees, and suffered a shoulder injury. His last major operation was in 2019, when three of the four ligaments in his left knee were repaired.
“There was a point in time when I questioned if I really (still) wanted to do this, but the ‘bug’ is always there. I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll try to step back on the skateboard. Okay, maybe I’ll roll around’, and I kept moving the goal post for myself,” he said. “And now, here we are. Back to competing again.”
While injuries kept him sidelined when skateboarding made its SEA Games debut in 2019, it did not stop him from travelling to the Philippines to support the Republic’s skateboarding contingent, which included his older brother, Feroze.
With the sport returning to the biennial meet for the first time since then, Farris is not letting himself get bogged down by targets.
“Of course the target is to win or get on the podium, but I will break it down into smaller pieces leading up to that,” he said. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be gold. Even if it’s a podium, third place, or even just the finals, I will be very happy with myself.”
For him, every moment he gets to skate and compete now is “just a bonus”. “Whatever I can achieve now is really just a cherry on top of the cake,” he said. “I didn’t expect to have it again, but now... I’ll just see how long I can go for.”
Correction note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct name of Farris Rahman’s brother.
