Paddler Chee aims to win SG50 gold

The 8th ASEAN Para Games will be held here from Dec 3-9, with some 1,500 athletes from 11 countries competing for honours. As Team Singapore readies for the battle on home ground, TODAY takes a closer look at each of the 15 sports that will be contested, and the inspirational stories behind the local athletes participating in them. The focus today is on table tennis.

SINGAPORE — Jason Chee will always remember Dec 10, 2012, as the day that changed his life completely.

But as the Navy Serviceman counts down to the third anniversary of the horrific shipboard accident that caused him to lose both legs and his left arm, this year the memories will be happy ones.

For Chee will be competing in the 8th ASEAN Para Games (APG), and the paddler is hopeful of striking gold in front of the home fans at the OCBC Arena. Since taking up table tennis in June 2013 as a form of rehabilitation, Chee has gone on to don national colours, representing the Republic in 
local and international tournaments, and major Games.

In 2014, he won a men’s team bronze at the ASEAN Para Games in Myanmar, before adding a singles bronze at last November’s Taichung Table Tennis Open.

Next month’s ASEAN Para Games will see Chee competing in three events: The men’s singles, men’s doubles, and men’s team.

But he is keeping it cool, as the 32-year-old told TODAY: “I won a bronze in Naypyidaw in 2013 and I hope to win at least a silver this time. And my big hope is to win a SG50 gold medal that I can dedicate to Singapore.”

He is a member of the 21-strong table tennis team that forms part of Team Singapore’s 157-member contingent competing across 15 sports at the Games.

Added Chee: “There’s no pressure at all because it’s being held here and I hope many Singaporeans will come and support us. With the support, we will feel more energised, encouraged and do even better.”

Clutching a table tennis bat in his right hand — which he handles with the help of a prosthetic thumb — Chee was smashing and spinning like a pro when TODAY caught up with him during a recent training session at the Singapore Sports Institute.

But his first try at the sport after the accident was not as smooth. He said: “I have been playing the sport since I was five years old, when I played with my friends at the HDB (Housing Development Board) void deck and we didn’t have bats, so we used exercise books.”

“I’ve always been a sporty guy. But I used to play table tennis and other sports with my left arm, and my right was only for writing. So my right hand was very weak and didn’t have much strength. In the beginning, I was a very lousy player and slow and it was not easy to adapt.”

With help from his coach Chia Chong Boon, and weights training sessions in the gym, Chee is now stronger and sharper on court.

And the paddler, who is a training supervisor with the Navy, has laid out his plans for his table tennis career. “The first goal ... is to play in the APG, and the second goal is to compete at the Asian Para Games, which I did in Incheon last year,” he said.

“My third is to compete at the Paralympics. So this year, I want to do well in the APG and win a medal, go to the next Asian Para Games in Indonesia, and then the Paralympics in Tokyo in 2020.”

It may seem like a strange twist of fate, but Chee admits his sporting career would not have happened if not for the tragic accident three years ago. Before the incident, the Navy serviceman’s life revolved around work, studies, friends and family.

But sport has breathed new life into the para athlete. “After the accident, I have many things to do aside from the three, and that includes table tennis and my outpatient rehab.”

“There are definitely times when I feel down, but I’m a solider and I have a fighting spirit like a soldier, so I have to be positive and determined.

“Table tennis has helped me to develop a positive mindset and build up my self-confidence, determination and fighting spirit.”