Lee to fly S’pore’s flag at Olympic Games

SINGAPORE — The Republic’s athletes may not be on the platform when the Olympic diving competition leaps off at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre on Aug 7, but history will still be made at the quadrennial event in three months’ time.

In a first for Singapore aquatics, William Lee, the Singapore Swimming Association’s (SSA) vice-president (diving) has been appointed a diving judge by Fina for the Olympic Games, forming part of a 23-strong group of officials from countries such as Australia, Canada, China, and the United States for Rio 2016.

Lee, 52, who has judged at the Diving World Series, Grand Prix, World Cup, and last year’s World Championships in Kazan, was notified of his selection by Fina’s technical diving committee at the start of this year.

“I was surprised … it is a huge honour to be selected,” said Lee, who is also the father of national divers Timothy and Mark. “This is my biggest assignment so far. The Olympics is the highest level of competition and the best of the best divers are there. It is a huge privilege to witness such an important event.

“The lessons I will learn will not only be for me as a judge, but also as a VP to see how the event is run, how other nations run their programmes, and (to) learn from my counterparts.”

Up to 136 divers are expected to compete across eight events in Rio: The men’s and women’s 3m springboard, 10m platform, 3m synchronised springboard and 10m synchronised platform.

Sitting for hours in the hot sun and inclement weather are some of the challenges that diving judges will face at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre, where the competition will be held outdoors. With judges on duty for up to three hours judging hundreds of dives, Lee said maintaining focus and alertness was key.

“After every event, the judges are brought together for an evaluation and video reviews … no punches are pulled if we did anything wrong,” he said. “The divers spend thousands of hours training. As judges we have to honour the athletes with our best performances. If you judge wrongly, you dishonour the athlete, and dishonour the sport.”

An avid fan of the sport, Lee’s journey as a judge and administrator began in 2009, a year before Singapore hosted the first Youth Olympic Games. The father of four, who is a pastor, had also encouraged twin sons Timothy and Mark to take it up.

He is excited at the prospect of catching China’s four-time world champion Qiu Bo in action in Brazil, and he added: “Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected that one day I would get to go to the Olympics. It also raises the profile of Singapore diving to the international community.”

Lee is also hopeful that history will once again be made at the 2020 Olympics, with Singaporean divers to qualify and feature at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in four years’ time. “We have a Vision 2020 plan to prepare our divers to qualify for the Games,” said Lee, who plans to run for the SSA’s diving VP post again at this year’s elections.

Team Singapore’s divers had finished second behind powerhouse Malaysia at the 2015 SEA Games with three silver and four bronze medals, and Lee is confident Singapore can close the gap on its rival.

“We have progressed very fast since we started in 2009,” he said. “We are rapidly closing the gap (with Malaysia) and we want to continue challenging them for the top position.”