SEA Games 2025: Depleted but not defeated, Singapore artistic swimmers win team silver

BANGKOK – Eye Of The Tiger, the battling theme song of Sylvester Stallone’s 1982 film, Rocky III, proved an apt choice for the Singapore artistic swimmers’ acrobatic routine on Dec 13.

For rising up to the challenge of their rivals was what the team had to do for these SEA Games, after travelling to Bangkok with a squad depleted by injuries and illness.

While the gold proved elusive in the team event, the Singaporeans managed to score 131.734 in the acrobatic element for a total of 575.9529 to finish second behind hosts Thailand (627.5551).

Indonesia claimed the bronze with 439.2231.

Veteran swimmer Debbie Soh, 27, said: “As athletes we always strive for gold, but we are proud to have achieved this result considering the challenges we had to adapt to along the way.

“Due to injuries, we had to compete with just seven members in the team (instead of eight) and many of our competitors said this is the first time they’ve seen this in a major competition.

“I’m very proud of the team and our fighting spirit.”

The team event comprises the free, technical and acrobatic elements, with the scores combined to determine the medals.

Ahead of the final day at the Assumption University Suvarnabhumi Campus Aquatic Centre, Singapore were second after scoring 222.3074 in the free and 211.9117 (technical), ahead of Indonesia.

But Singapore could not outscore the home favourites on Dec 13, settling for second place to end their campaign in Thailand with one gold (duet) and a team silver.

Their sole success came from Soh and Yvette Chong on Dec 12, with Soh taking her total medal tally to six golds and three silvers from three editions (2012, 2017, 2025).

At the 2017 Games in Kuala Lumpur, the last time artistic swimming was contested, the Republic won the team free routine ahead of hosts Malaysia and Indonesia.

Tay Chin Joo, vice-president of artistic swimming at Singapore Aquatics, said that she was “proud of the girls”.

The former Olympic swimmer said: “Our artistic swimmers won two medals at these SEA Games and we are proud of their achievements.

“Other than balancing training with academic commitments, the team also experienced sickness and injuries in the lead up to the SEA Games.

“We also saw more injuries as their programme started. Despite that, the team demonstrated maturity and they adapted really well with the circumstances.”

With the sport returning to the Games after an eight-year hiatus, Soh – who with Rachel Thean are the only swimmers from the 2017 squad – hopes that the medals will help inspire more athletes to join them as they look to build the squad for other major Games.

Soh added: “Artistic swimming isn’t always featured at the SEA Games and this is a good opportunity for us to raise the sport’s profile.

“We hope our performances here in Bangkok help in raising awareness of artistic swimming in Singapore, and that we can inspire more young athletes to pick up the sport.”

Singapore artistic swimming performance director Anastasia Goutseva said: “It has been an intense period heading into the SEA Games and the team had to deal with some unexpected challenges.

“This is also the first time artistic swimming is back in the programme for the SEA Games, so the anticipation and pressure is present as well.

“The team has handled these factors well.

“They have shown great solidarity and I’m very happy with their performance, especially with the duet pair’s strong showing.

“They have more to give and we will look to continue building on this performance.”