As the Paris Olympics 2024 began this weekend, following an unprecedented opening ceremony on Friday evening, Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong shared an Instagram post yesterday, with a message of encouragement: “Go Team Singapore!”
The Instagram post had two pictures, and the first one showed the Singapore flag-bearers — sprinter Shanti Pereira and sailor Ryan Lo — at the Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony on the Seine.
Para-swimmer Toh Wei Soong will have the honour of carrying the Singapore flag at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, which will follow the ongoing summer Olympic Games.
The Singapore contingent at the Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony. | nstagram/lawrencewongst (via Reuters)
PIO athlete Shanti Pereira has had a string of recent successes at the Asian level — 200m gold and 100m silver at the Hangzhou Asian Games in October 2023; and the rare “sprint double” of 200m and 100m gold at the SEA Games in Cambodia in May 2023.
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“Shanti finished 2023 as Asia’s #1 Ranked Woman in the 200m,” said Sport Singapore, giving details of the flag-bearers’ achievements. This also makes her one of the biggest medal hopefuls for Singapore at the Paris Olympics 2024.
For Ryan Lo, who made his Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, this is the second Olympic Games. “He picked up sailing in 2004 and has been a consistent performer at the highest level, where he clinched a bronze medal at the 2010 Asian Games and the 2018 Asian Games, and a gold medal at [the] 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou. He will be racing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as Asia’s top-ranked Single-Handed Dinghy (ILCA7) sailor,” said Sport Singapore.
Singapore para-swimmer Toh Wei Soong | Instagram/tohweisoong
Toh Wei Soong began swimming from the age of six, as a form of therapy, “since he was diagnosed with the rare condition of Transverse Myelitis when he was two”, according to Sport Singapore. “He soon fell in love with the experience of being in water, where he faced little restriction and could do things that he could not on land.”
Wei Soong has been swimming competitively since 2013. He qualified for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, and won a bronze medal in the 50m freestyle.
(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Free Press Journal and Connected To India)
