Trio inducted into the Sport Hall of Fame
Team Singapore athletes Joseph Schooling, Theresa Goh and Laurentia Tan are now part of an exclusive club of 55 Singaporeans, which includes household names such as Fandi Ahmad and Ang Peng Siong
Team Singapore athletes Joseph Schooling, Theresa Goh and Laurentia Tan were inducted in the Sport Hall of Fame at the Singapore Sports Hub on Tuesday (Aug 8) morning.
The trio's citations were read out on stage at the finale of the GetActive! Singapore 2017 event at the OCBC Square, which was attended by more than 6,000 people.
Schooling, 22, clinched Singapore's first-ever Olympic gold medal at the Rio Olympics last year when the swimmer clocked an Olympic record of 50.39 seconds to win the men's 100m butterfly.
The University of Texas undergraduate also won bronze medals in the same event at the 2015 and 2017 Fina World Championships, in Kazan, Russia and Budapest, Hungary, respectively.
He said: "It's a great honour for not only myself but my family and my country; being on the wall with Uncle (Ang) Peng Siong, Joscelin (Yeo) and great Singapore sportsmen like Uncle C Kunalan; that's a force to be reckoned with.
"It would be a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life."
Para-swimmer Goh, 30, has amassed more than 30 gold medals in her 18 years in competitive swimming, and competed in three Paralympics - Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, and Rio 2016.
She won a bronze medal in the SB4 100m breaststroke at the Rio Paralympics last year, and clocked an Asian record in the event in the process.
Goh said: "Those people (already in the Hall of Fame), they are legendary. They have put in the hard work and they have done the best they could do for their country, whatever their respective fields are... I wouldn't say I am legendary; I try to do the best I can. I try to remain as humble as I can."
Para-equestrienne Tan, who has hearing impairment and cerebral palsy, took up horse-riding at age five, initially as a form of physiotherapy.
But the 38-year-old has since clinched a silver and three bronzes in total from two Paralympic campaigns in 2008 and 2012.
She said: "To have my sports career and its legacy forever be a part of Singapore's history is an amazing honour and very, very humbling.
"I feel really blessed. It is my love and passion for horse riding that I am here."
Including the trio, there are now 55 names in the Sport Hall of Fame, which includes household names such as football's Fandi Ahmad, weightlifting's Tan Howe Liang and sailing's Benedict Tan.
Tan, now the Singapore Sailing Federation president, said: "Results alone don't get you into the Hall of Fame; you need to have contributed and inspired the community at large, and this is exactly what they have done."
Guest of honour, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu said: "These three athletes are great additions to the Hall of Fame, and I think their determination, their single-minded pursuits of excellence, their perseverance, their resilience; they will be great role models for all the younger Singaporeans and athletes.
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