As national swimmer Gan Ching Hwee packed her bags for the Paris Olympics after receiving the invitation to compete, another athlete put down her paddle and announced retirement.
National player Wong Xin Ru will no longer be playing table tennis professionally and will be starting university instead.
Had Initially Put Her Studies on Hold to Qualify for the Paris Olympics
The 22-year-old announced in an Instagram post on 9 July 2024 that she will be leaving the world of table tennis after 14 years.
Addressing her fans, friends, and supporters, she said that this decision was difficult but heartfelt and that this journey has been a “dream come true.”
She continued to share that “it has been an honour to pursue my passion” while representing Singapore and that this journey has shaped her both as an athlete and as a person.
Wong said that she would be starting university soon, something that she had put on hold to try to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Unfortunately, this marked the first time the national women’s team failed to secure a spot at the Games.
Earlier in March this year, Singapore slipped from its 10th world ranking spot to 18th, missing out on the last four qualifying spots based on world rankings which instead went to Thailand, Poland, India and Sweden.
At the Busan World Team Table Tennis Championships, the Singaporean team, including Wong Xin Ru, Zeng Jian and Zhou Jingyi, lost 3-0 to Poland in the 32nd round.
If they had won that match, they would have had enough rank points to qualify for the Olympics that kick off at the end of July.
Unfortunately, this was not to be.
Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) president Poh Li San attributed this to the retirement of big names in the table tennis scene like Feng Tianwei, Yu Mengyu and Lin Ye together with a lack of experience.
Sharing that the average age of the women’s team is 21 years of age, making them the second-youngest team at the world championships, Poh said that the team is “still rather raw and inexperienced compared to the other teams.”
Among the team members that she named from both male and female teams was Xin Ru, who she said was trained through the STTA’s junior development squad and the Singapore Sports School’s system.
Now that she has put down table tennis full-time, Wong will be pursuing a degree at the NUS College of Humanities and Science.
While she acknowledges that there have been many student-athletes before her, she told The Straits Times that she did not want to spread herself too thin and would rather focus on her studies.
With years of table tennis under her belt, the Singaporean-born player has won many accolades for the country, including the mixed doubles gold at the 2022 SEA Games in Hanoi and two more silvers and two joint-bronzes in the doubles over the 2019-2023 SEA Games.
She was also part of the women’s team that bagged the gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The young athlete has accomplished a lot for her age and coach Jing Junhong said that it was a bit of a pity that she’d be retiring, but will respect her decision and hopes she will continue to grow.
Wong also encouraged Singaporeans to get behind the team as she thanked everyone for the opportunity.
From the women’s team, Zeng Jian and Zhou Jingyi will still be representing Singapore at the Paris Olympics in their individual events, so stay tuned for more Olympics updates.
