Four-Time Olympian Joscelin Yeo Inducted to Singapore Sports Hall of Fame
Joscelin Yeo, a four-time Olympian, was inducted to the Singapore Sports Hall of Fame this week.
Yeo was one of eight inductees, three of which were athletes, to enter the hall at a ceremony on Tuesday.
Yeo swam at four Olympics from 1992 to 2004. She was Singapore’s flagbearer at the Opening Ceremonies in Sydney in 2000. She was 17 when she attempted the daunting program in the 1996 Olympics of the 200 individual medley, 100 butterfly, and the 50, 100, 200 and 400 free.
Four years later, the program was similarly voluminous – 100 breaststroke, 100 fly, 200 IM and 50 and 100 free. She finished in the top 30 in more than half of her Olympic swims (nine of 16). The closest she came to getting into semifinals was in Athens, when she finished 19th in the 200 IM. She was also 22nd in the 100 free in Sydney and 23rd in the 200 IM. She retired at age 28 in 2007.
Her biggest individual medals came eight years apart, with bronze medals in the 100 fly at the Asian Games in 1994 and 2002. She won 40 gold medals and 55 total medals at the Southeast Asian Games from 1993 to 2005. That includes an immortal performance of nine gold and 10 total medals in home waters in 1993 just after she turned 14.
She competed at her first SEA Games two years earlier at age 12. The took part in four Asian Games and three Commonwealth Games.
“I am deeply honoured and humbled to receive this prestigious award today, standing alongside esteemed sporting figures who have left an indelible mark on Singapore’s sporting legacy,” Yeo said at the ceremony. “Singapore was built on the shoulders of giants and while I don’t consider myself to be one, I believe that much can be learnt from those who have gone before us, and I endeavour to do what I can in that respect. Sports, in particular swimming, has taught me a lot of life lessons, hence I hope to see sports as a greater enabler and equaliser – uniting Singaporeans and bringing hope to the community.”
Yeo has accomplished plenty outside of the pool. She studied at the University of California for one year, then three years at the University of Texas. She earned a Rhodes Scholarship to study the science and medicine of athletic performance. She served as a Nominated Member of Parliament in Singapore from 2006-11 and has worked as a television analyst.
A 21-time All-American, Yeo won 10 Big 12 championships with Texas. At Cal, she was part of a pair of NCAA relay championships in 2000. She was voted the team MVP for both programs.
The other athletes joining the Singapore Sports Hall of Fame are Yu Mengyu, a table tennis player who twice finished fourth at the Olympics, and boxer Syed Abdul Kadir, the only Singaporean to represent the country in that sport. A total of 57 athletes have been inducted since the Hall was created in 1985, among them Olympic gold medalist swimmer Joseph Schooling and paralympic swimmer Yip Pin Xiu.
The inductees include individuals involved in water polo, the late Dr. Tan Eng Liang, who was a water polo player and Singapore national Olympic Council vice president, and Kenneth Kee, a national teamer in water polo and head coach.