Swimming ‘blind’ no issue as S’pore’s Mikkel Lee hunts for Commonwealth Games glory
The Straits Times continues the countdown to the 2026 Commonwealth Games, which will be held from July 23 to Aug 2 in Glasgow, Scotland. Team Singapore’s 53-strong contingent will compete for honours across seven sports, and today, we feature swimmer Mikkel Lee and para-swimmer Toh Wei Soong.
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Mikkel Lee, the SEA Games men’s 50m and 100m freestyle gold medallist, is aiming to make a splash at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
- Mikkel Lee, a Singaporean swimmer, relies on muscle memory and teammates to judge race results, focusing on his own performance rather than competitors.
- Lee aims to improve on his 2022 Commonwealth Games showing, drawing lessons from past experiences and targeting success at the 2026 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
- Para swimmer Toh Wei Soong seeks to upgrade his Commonwealth Games medals from bronze and silver to gold, building on years of training and technological advances.
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SINGAPORE – National swimmer Mikkel Lee uses his ears to tell if he has won a race.
After touching the wall at the end of a race, most swimmers look up at the scoreboard to check their race times and placing.
Not Lee. Not because he does not care. The 23-year-old has worn spectacles since primary school – his myopia is 400 degrees in each eye – and he cannot see clearly while competing as he does not use contact lenses or prescription goggles.
He usually knows he has won a race based on the cheers from the crowd at a home race, or when informed by his teammates in nearby lanes.
Lee told The Straits Times in an interview ahead of the Commonwealth Games: “The only thing that I can’t see is my time after I finish the race.
“Sometimes I don’t even know I have won. I’m glad to have raced alongside many of my friends who know that I am essentially blind when I race, and whenever we touch the wall, they look over and would tell me how I did.”
He wears prescription goggles during training sessions so that he can keep track of his pace.
“But in a race, everything is muscle memory,” he added. “Everything is repetitive motion.
“I choose not to wear those goggles during a race. I don’t think there’s a necessity for it.
“(Not being able to see where the other swimmers are) does not make much of a difference for me. I just focus on myself, that’s all I need to do.”
That focus has reaped rewards for the Indiana University undergraduate, who was a standout performer at the 2025 SEA Games with four golds, including in the men’s 50m and 100m freestyle, the latter which he won with a personal best of 48.65 seconds.
At his second Commonwealth Games outing in Glasgow, Lee is one of six swimmers in Singapore’s contingent alongside Teong Tzen Wei – the reigning Games silver medallist in the 50m butterfly – Gan Ching Hwee, Russel Pang, Sarah Sim, and Zavv Lee.
Mikkel Lee, who is pencilled in for the 50m and 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly, is looking to apply lessons from his debut in 2022.
In Birmingham four years ago, he did not progress to the finals of his three events – he placed 14th out of 16 in the 50m freestyle semi-finals, last in the 100m freestyle semi-finals and 12th out of 16 in the 50m butterfly.
He said: “One of the biggest lessons came in the 50m fly. I didn’t make the final, and that experience taught me a lot.
“I remember sitting in the call room, and we were maybe 10 or 15 minutes behind schedule. Everyone around me was moving about, and I remember thinking, ‘what are these people doing? They’re trying too hard’.
“But when it was time to walk out, I was the one who wasn’t ready. I was cold, and it suddenly hit me that those guys had been staying warm so they’d be ready to race. That’s something I’ve learnt from, and it’s something I’ve been doing differently ever since.
“I’m glad I had that experience early in my career because it means I won’t make that same mistake.”
He will also compete at the Sept 19-Oct 4 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan.
On his targets, he said that he has “some expectations for myself” but declined to provide more details, noting that he is focused on the right process and “the fundamentals that’s going to set me up for greater things to come at the Asian Games”.
Similarly, para-swimmer Toh Wei Soong is aiming for an improved result from the last Commonwealth Games.
Singaporean para-swimmer Toh Wei Soong with two of his three gold medals which he won at the ASEAN Para Games in Thailand on Jan 24.
PHOTO: SPORT SINGAPORE
In 2018, he clinched Singapore’s first medal in a para sports event at the Commonwealth Games after he finished third in the men’s 50m freestyle S7.
Four years later in Birmingham, he went one better and won a silver.
The 2026 season has been a fruitful one for the 27-year-old so far, as he won three golds, a silver and a bronze at the ASEAN Para Games.
He said: “I have got bronze and silver in my last two Commonwealth Games, so I’m looking to make it a third (medal) with a gold and that would be a great way to end off my Commonwealth Games experience.
“It’s building up a lot of the skills developed over the years and adding a few new tricks through new experiences I’ve had with improvements in technology and technique and support. I’m very proud to have won the first para-sports medal at the Games for Singapore and to try to end it with a gold would be a great bonus for me, so I’m going to work towards that.”
