Gen Y Speaks: How I went from table tennis to curling and facing an Olympic medallist

I played table tennis competitively from primary school until university, when I made the switch to curling. It was an unconventional choice, given that curling is a winter Olympics sport and you can probably fit the number of active Singaporean curlers into a classroom.

Yet my four-year journey with curling has led to experiences beyond my wildest imagination, including training under and then competing against an Olympian medallist.

It all started when I was watching the 2014 Winter Olympics on television. I was amused by the frantic sweeping and the constant yelling by the competing curlers.

However, I became intrigued as I began to understand the rules of the game. My interest grew as I carried on watching the sport on YouTube even after the Olympics. Then one day, I decided to have a go at the sport and signed up for a lesson conducted by the Equatorial Curling Club at JCube.

I considered myself quite athletic since I was an active table tennis player and thought I could breeze through the lesson.

Yet, the moment I took my first slide, I slipped and fell heavily onto the ice. That was when I discovered the difference between playing table tennis and curling.

The former requires speed and agility whereas the latter demands great balance on the ice, a skill which I clearly lacked at that time. Despite a couple of embarrassing falls in my first session, I carried on practising until I got a hang of the sport.

When I told my friends about my new passion, most of them were shocked and asked how it was possible to play a winter sport in sunny Singapore. Not many people know that to curl, an ice skating rink would already suffice as a playing venue.

After a year into curling, I decided to attend a training camp organised by the World Curling Federation. The top junior curlers from around Europe were there and I was the only participant from Asia.

My trainers were a group of highly-qualified instructors who helped me improve my skills tremendously after just one week.

Then one day, a got a message on Facebook from Sarah Cai, a Singaporean curler based in Denver, asking me if I would consider playing in a competitive mixed doubles event with her.

I was excited by her offer but I was also feeling apprehensive. I had never played mixed doubles curling before as I only played the traditional four-person team event. Moreover, I felt I wasn’t ready to compete against professional curlers as I had only three years of experience in the sport.

However, after some encouragement from Sarah, I decided to take up the challenge. We chose a World Curling Tour event in Tallinn, Estonia.

To prepare for the tournament, I knew I needed more ice time to practise and to learn more about mixed doubles.

As I was starting my university exchange programme in Zurich right after the tournament, I contacted curling clubs in Switzerland for a coach who specialises in training mixed doubles teams.

I was referred to Martin Rios, who won a silver medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics with his partner, Jenny Perret. The thought of being coached by an Olympian excited me and I wrote to Martin immediately.

To my surprise, he agreed to train me. It was only when we met up in Biel, Switzerland, that we knew we will be competing against one another in Tallinn.

Still, Martin graciously taught me everything there was to know in mixed doubles, including the strategies and the sweeping techniques.

Sarah and I had to play against five teams in the group stage of the tournament. It was the first time both of us were playing together and our inexperience showed as we lost to the teams from Finland, Russia and Sweden.

Our best performance was against Latvia as we were neck-to-neck with our opponents from start till finish. We eventually beat the Latvians by a close score of 7-5.

However, the highlight in the tournament for us was playing against the Olympic silver medallists, Martin and Jenny.

We had feared that we would be trashed by them. But Sarah and I started the game pretty well.

Sarah did not show any signs of nerves and made many excellent shots, and we found ourselves in the lead after the first end.

Eventually, the experience of the Swiss team showed as they caught up and won the game, 11-3. Despite the loss and not progressing further in the tournament, Sarah and I were very proud of our performance.

I am really thankful that my parents took the time off to travel to Tallinn to support us. My dad had also gotten so hooked into curling that he stayed behind to watch other matches.

Playing in Tallinn has opened up my eyes into the world of professional curling. Not many who play a sport for a few years has the chance to compete against the best in the world and I am grateful for that.

This experience will also help me in my preparations to compete at future tournaments as I have learned to manage the stress and pressure of playing against opponents of higher calibre.

Four years of experience in curling may be short, but it has definitely inspired me to spread the joy of playing this sport to other Singaporeans.

Curling can be played by almost anyone, from the young to the physically disabled. I hope to work with other enthusiasts to help our curling association gain recognition as a National Sports Association from Sport Singapore.

We also plan to form a men’s team to compete in overseas tournaments.

There is still a long way to go for the development of curling in Singapore, but I am definitely excited for what is to come.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lionel Loh Cai Hao is a final-year student pursuing a degree in Business at Nanyang Technological University.