Swimmer Quah Ting Wen is first athlete to be awarded Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship

SINGAPORE – Quah Ting Wen has become the first current national athlete to be awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship for her postgraduate studies.

The 33-year-old is among six recipients in 2026, which also included Wang Chenwei, composer-in-residence of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.

The scholarship is awarded to “exceptional individuals who demonstrate a strong sense of commitment to serve Singapore and Singaporeans”, the Public Service Division said in a media statement.

Quah, a national swimmer, competed in the Olympics three times (2008, 2016, 2021) and is also the most decorated athlete in the history of the SEA Games, having won 63 medals at the biennial event.

Singapore Aquatics president Kenneth Goh was also a recipient of the scholarship in 2005, after he had retired as a national swimmer.

Alan Goh, chief executive officer of Sport Singapore, had encouraged Quah to apply for the scholarship and to see herself as more than an athlete, she told The Straits Times on June 30.

She had been considering going back to school for a few years and made the leap in 2025 to pursue her master’s degree.

“It comes with a sense of responsibility,” she said, reflecting on being the first athlete to receive the scholarship. “It shows other athletes that we can succeed in other areas outside the sporting arena.”

She said she was grateful to those who made balancing sport and school possible since she began swimming competitively at 12, such as her teachers in Nan Hua Primary School and Raffles Girls’ School who helped her catch up on the school work she missed while training.

She added: “I’m hoping that this scholarship shows athletes that even if they might not be able to do both at the same time right now, it doesn’t mean that they should put their academics aside completely.”

Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship holders are fully sponsored for their tuition fees and receive an annual allowance of $50,000 for the duration of their postgraduate studies, which can be taken in any country and field of study.

Quah is in her first year of the Master of Guidance and Counselling programme at James Cook University, Singapore. She had turned to this field while considering how she might give back to the community as an older athlete.

She found that nurturing younger swimmers came naturally to her and she did not want the advice she could provide to be limited to her personal experience. “Why not go back to school to properly educate myself? Then, the next time I try to help one of my peers, I could do it in a more informed and well-rounded way,” she said.

Quah takes night classes. During the day, she is a swim coach at the Overseas Family School, where she has been working with swimmers from ages nine to 18 since January.

She is already applying what she is learning to better herself as a coach, she said. For instance, her studies have changed the way she asks questions, allowing her students to explore their own emotions and come to their own conclusions confidently and independently, rather than ending the conversation with a simple yes or no.

As for her plans for the future, Quah said she is taking the year to balance both school and sports, with no major competitions set in stone. Earlier in June, she was named one of the athletes in Singapore’s provisional contingent for the Sept 19-Oct 4 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. She was pencilled in for the 50m freestyle and butterfly races, and the 4x100 freestyle and medley relay races.

ST understands that she will not be competing in the multi-sport event.

Fellow recipient Wang, 37, also said receiving the scholarship was an immense honour, adding: “It empowers me to prioritise enduring impact over short-term return in my doctoral research and composition – to rediscover tradition and redefine innovation in pursuit of a genuine Singaporean sound that reflects who we are and who we aspire to be.”

The other four recipients are Chong Fu Shan, 28; Daniel Chor Wei Ping, 41; Navjote Singh Sachdev, 38; and Stephanie Siow Su Lyn, 32.