Quah Zheng Wen (; born 29 September 1996) is a Singaporean professional swimmer who specialises in

individual medley Medley is a combination of four different swimming styles—backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle—into one race. This race is either swum by one swimmer as individual medley (IM) or by four swimmers as a medley relay. Individual m ...

backstroke Backstroke or back crawl is one of the four Swimming (sport), swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disa ...

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

and freestyle events.

Education

Quah was educated at

Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) (ACS(I)) is an independent Methodist secondary school in Dover, Singapore. Founded in 1886 by Reverend William Fitzjames Oldham, it was recognised as an International Baccalaureate World School in 2005, and ha ...

and had achieved 43 points out of a possible 45 for his

IB Diploma The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a two-year educational programme primarily aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds in 140 countries around the world. The programme provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry into ...

. After completed his IB Diploma Programme, Quah was accepted into the

Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine The Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, established in 1905, is the first institution of higher learning in Singapore and the genesis of the National University of Singapore. The School is one of many who offer medical programmes in the Asia Pacif ...

at the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

, but chose to defer his studies. He subsequently went on to enrol at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 2017, before graduating in 2021.

Swimming career

In June 2012, he set a national record in the 200 m individual medley. At the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

he finished 33rd overall in the heats in the Men's 400 metre individual medley and failed to reach the final. Quah was Singapore's flag bearer for the 2013 Asian Youth Games. He won three individual gold medals and a silver medal at the 200 m backstroke, 200 m butterfly, 200 m individual medley and 200 m freestyle events respectively. He won the team silver and bronze medals at the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay and 4 × 100 m medley relay events. At the

2015 Southeast Asian Games The 2015 Southeast Asian Games ( ms, Sukan Asia Tenggara 2015; ; ta, 2015 தென்கிழக்கு ஆசிய விளையாட்டுப் போட்டிகள்), officially known as the 28th Southeast Asian Games, or ...

held in Singapore, Quah took part in 12 events, winning seven golds, four silvers and a bronze. He broke six Games records – three individual and three relays. In the men's 4 × 100 m medley relay which consisted of Quah,

Joseph Schooling Joseph Isaac Schooling (born 16 June 1995) is a Singaporean professional swimmer who specialises in butterfly, freestyle and medley events. He was the gold medalist in the 100m butterfly at the 2016 Olympics, achieving Singapore's first ev ...

, Clement Lim and Lionel Khoo, the team finished the race in 3:38.25, erasing the old record of 3:41.35 set in 2011. At the

2016 Rio Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

, Quah achieved a personal best time in 200 meters butterfly in the heats. He was the first male Singaporean to qualify for a semifinal berth at an Olympics swim competition. He is one of two Singaporean male swimmers to have qualified for two semi-final berths at the Olympics. Due to his potential at winning Olympic medals for Singapore, Quah was granted National Service (NS) deferment until the

2020 Olympic Games The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the 2020 Olympic Games was delayed to 2021 and his NS deferment was extended to 2021. In the 2020 Olympic Games, Quah competed in the 100m butterfly, the 200m butterfly and the 100m backstroke. He failed to clock personal best times and did not make it to the semi-finals for the three events. Quah returned to Singapore after a 5-year programme at the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently serving his National Service. However, Quah noted that he was “at a crossroads of some big life decisions” and desires to continue swimming.

Personal life

Quah has an elder sister,

Quah Ting Wen Quah Ting Wen (; born 18 August 1992) is a Singaporean professional swimmer who specialises in butterfly, freestyle and individual medley events. She is currently representing DC Trident at the International Swimming League. Education Quah ...

, and a younger sister,

Quah Jing Wen Quah Jing Wen ( zh, c=柯敬文, p=Kē Jìngwén; born 20 December 2000) is a Singaporean professional swimmer who specialises in individual medley, butterfly and freestyle events. Education Quah was educated at Methodist Girls' School and ...

, who both are national swimmers of Singapore as well.

References

External links