Gary Yeo, Muhammad Elfi Mustapha, Lee Cheng Wei and Muhammad Amiruddin Jamal

By Dan Cai 

On the track, they were the Fab Four who won a much coveted silver in the men’s 4x100m relay at the 2009 SEA Games in Laos. Off it, they have now been courted by Mizuno. Which means more fashionable sports wear for Gary Yeo, Muhammad Elfi Mustapha, Lee Cheng Wei and Muhammad Amiruddin Jamal (pictured).

Gabriel Gan

By Mark Koh

The Tay sisters – Tabitha and Nicole – are well known in the local gymnastics circle. While Gabriel Gan (pictured) and brother Gregory are less familiar to fans, they can also take pride in the fact that both have donned national colours. The younger Gregory took part in the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand while Gabriel is the one in top form now with his creditable fourth placing in the pommel horse at the Pacific Rim Championships in Melbourne.

Tao Li

As the first Singapore swimmer to qualify for an Olympic final, Tao Li is certainly no stranger to facing the press.And her experience would most certainly have come in handy as she made the switch to journalism early this year - albeit on the silver screen. The 19-year-old had a cameo role in "The Wedding Game" as a reporter interviewing actors Christopher Lee and Fann Wong. She won't be making the leap to the big screen anytime soon though, describing the long hours of filming as "very tiring".

Li Jiawei

Olympic silver medallist Li Jia Wei is hot property here, and not just because of her table-tennis skills. She placed fifth out of 30 in a MSN poll of the hottest female athletes, behind (in this order) Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Anna Kournikova, Yelena Isinbayeva. No shame there.Sadly for her admirers, the paddler is taken. She is married to Chinese businessman Li Chao.

Goh Jia Yi

Shooter Goh Jia Yi (pictured with male team mates) made her mark with a gold medal at the 2009 SEA Games in Laos. What sports fans may not know is that the Raffles Girls’ School student also consistently hits the mark when it comes to mathematics and the sciences. For example, she has won gold at the Singapore Maths Olympiad and scored a high distinction at the Australian Maths Competition. She has also earned a perfect score at an Australian chemistry quiz.

Quah Ting Wen

We know swimmer Quah Ting Wen has her favourite events. In the pool, she loves swimming the 200m free in particular though she has also done well in other freestyle events, the 200m fly and the 400m IM. In the classroom, she is drawn to the arts and is inclined towards a major in English as she pursues her education in USA.

Parker Lam

Swimmer Parker Lam made waves with his national records in the 50m breast and 100m breast. He has also made a name for himself else where – as the winner of Cleo magazine’s annual “Eligible Bachelors” contest. Not that glamour will get in the way of sports, thankfully. For he also qualified for the men’s 50m breaststroke event in the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games.

Mok Ying Ren

Triathlete Mok Ying Ren seems to be able to do so many things. He studies medicine at NUS. He has won a SEA Games gold medal. And he dabbles in magic as a hobby. So it is comforting to know he has his limits too. Though he plays badminton and table tennis, his ball sense is less than ideal. Which is why triathlon - which involves swimming, cycling and running – suits him just fine.

Lim Wei Wen

National fencer Lim Wei Wen, who won a silver medal at the 2007 SEA Games in Korat, may have come a long way since he picked up his sport in 2005. But it still tickles him whenever he shares about his impression of fencing when he first heard about it. He actually thought it had something to do with building fences. Well, his English may not be great then but that hasn’t stopped him from realizing his sporting potential.

Jasmine Yeong-Nathan

Bowler Jasmine Yeong-Nathan is pretty handy with a golf club, according to her father R.V. Nathan who wanted her to make the switch to golf. Thankfully, this was one time she did not heed dad's advice. She could not bear to give up bowling, and Singapore benefited when she became the Republic's first AMF World Cup champion. Her friends call her Miss World Champ now.

Quah Ting Wen

Swimmer Quah Ting Wen has never eaten from her school canteen at Raffles Institution Junior College. No, it is not that she does not like the food. It is because she has to adhere to a strict diet. It consists of rice, meat and vegetables for lunch and dinner. In her own words, "Very boring, right?" With sacrifices like this, it is little wonder that she did so well at the Asian Youth Games, finishing as the most bemedalled female athlete with four golds.

Isabelle Li

Paddler Isabelle Li is in the limelight following her recent success at the International Table Tennis Federation World Junior Circuit which included wins in countries like Argentina and Chile. But things could have been very different if the youngster had pursued her dream of being a pilot. But then again maybe her childhood's aspiraton was just preparation for her to fly high in another way - as a paddler.

Koh Seng Leong & Renfred Tay

National sailors Koh Seng Leong and Renfred Tay have hearts of gold: in 2007, the then first-year Singapore Management University undergraduates started the SMU Sports Scholarship, donating $5,000 each. The $10,000 came from their winning money from the 2006 Asian Games, where Tay took gold in the Keelboat race and Koh placed second in the Laser Radial category.

Mok Ying Ren

Should he ever get bored of his chosen sport, national triathlete Mok Ying Ren can always consider an alternative career as a magician. He sometimes goes to a candy shop at Vivocity where he performs sleight-of-hand tricks for children using sweets as the props. The self-taught magician learns his tricks from books on magic and the Internet.

Hariss Harun

It seems that Singapore's youngest-ever football international Hariss Harun is becoming quite a model. He was seen on H-TWO-O ads at MRT stations, and was unveiled as one of six athletes chosen to front the advertisements, commercials and posters as part of the Singapore National Olympic Council Official Partnership Program (SOPP) team-up with Canon. Something to do with his fresh-faced charm perhaps?

Feng Tianwei

Someone wants to be Feng Tianwei. Last year, the paddler was impersonated by a blogger who started a blog “Le Le’s Little corner”(Le Le, which means “happy”, is Feng’s nickname.”)  Said Feng of the Blogspot-based blog, of which a link was posted on social networking site Facebook’s Feng Tianwei Fan Club page, “I hope whoever is behind this will stop. This person doesn't know the first thing about me, my background and my thinking.”  She added, “I'm me. I don't need someone to take my place.”

Rainer Ng

Swimmer Rainer Ng and his team mates may be busy with training and competition. But they made sure they had time for the asthmatic children from the National University Hospital (NUH). As part of Children's Day, they spent time with the kids at the Singapore Swimming Association Swimming Complex.

John Wilkinson

Back in England, footballer John Wilkinson used to play for Exeter City. There, part of his pre-match routine involved the not-so-common technique of focusing on spoons! The reason: Israel-born psychic Uri Geller was one of the owners at the time. Wilkinson claims that Geller would often come into the dressing-room bending spoons, and before matches, would also hand each of the players a spoon and ask them to focus on it. Naturally, Wilkinson said the players were more amused than inspired.

Baihakki Khaizan

In 2005, Footballer Baihakki Khaizan received the most number of letters in a Valentine’s Day promotion organised by the Football Association of Singapore. When asked how it felt, he said modestly, “I’m quite pleased that there are people who want to share their Valentine's Day with me.” Girls out there who are interested in the 1.9m tall centre-back, take note –  he likes his women to be sweet, caring and understanding.

Rainer Ng

Talented young Swimmer Rainer Ng took up swimming at the age of four as a means to combat asthma. Then, his parents had a nebuliser machine stationed at home as he often suffered from nasty asthma attacks. Today, his accidental foray into swimming has paid  dividends – and not just because he no longer has to rely on the machine. The 17-year-old is already rewriting national records. For example, in the men’s 100m back, he has broken David Lim’s 1988 record of 57.34 secs with a time of 57.33 secs.

Bryan Tay

Swimming star Bryan Tay let out his closet geek on a November 2005 post on his blog. He was gushing about the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV series.  He wrote about how the Power Rangers could call upon their Megazord (a giant robot) to kick the villains back to outer space and lamented that kids nowadays can’t appreciate “back-flips and weird kicks”. 

Jazreel Tan

Bowler Jazreel Tan had a special cameo role in The Wedding Game, alongside swimmer Tao Li. She was anything but camera-shy. After all, she loves to take photos of herself (along with best friends and fellow national bowlers Jasmine Yeong-Nathan and Cherie Tan) on overseas trips. According to Jazreel, they can take up to 600 pictures together during each overseas trip!

Remy Ong

When Remy Ong is away from the bowling lanes, he is living life in the fast lane. The bowler is attracted to flashy cars and bought a $250,000 Mercedes-Benz CLK convertible in 2002, saying then, “You tell me, which guy hasn't dreamt about driving a convertible?” But the veteran bowler stressed that he wasn’t born with a silver spoon and bought the car with his hard-earned money (from sports-related prize money and awards). Ong would also rather shy away from the attention associated with such a car. For instance, when he parked the car at Zouk, he would always keep the car-top up so it is “not so prominent”.

Lam Chih Bing

Golfer Lam Chih Bing impressed Sophie, his wife of over two years, with his generosity on their second date. The couple had noticed a crippled man as they strolled along Orchard Road. Without hesitation, Lam walked over to give him some money. Said Sophie, “I don't know if it was for real or if he was trying to impress me.” Whatever, his act went down well with her.

Joey Poh

Up-and-coming golfer Joey Poh was hardly enthusiastic about golf at the age of nine. But coming from a golfing mad family (older brother Johnson is also making a name for himself in the local golfing scene), mum Nancy naturally found a way to persuade her. She would bribe the young Joey with sweets, such as a lollipop for hitting ten balls. And her efforts to sweeten the deal for young Joey have paid off. The 15-year-old was the only Singaporean to compete in the US$2 million HSBC Women’s Champions.

Aleksandar Duric

Striker Aleksandar Duric once participated in the Olympic Games... in kayaking! Growing up in poverty, he took up the sport after neighbours told him that he could get free adidas shoes and clothes if he joined a kayaking team. By 17, he was ranked 8th in world junior rankings. In 1992, he made history as the only kayaker in Bosnia's first-ever team for the Olympics. A refugee from the Bosnian war, he bravely made his way down to Barcelona for the Games armed only with a letter confirming his status as an Olympian. The journey was anything but simple, and involved hitchhiking and more than one disbelieving immigration official.

Hassan Sunny

Lions’ Hassan Sunny is an accidental goalkeeper. He used to play in midfield but was forced to make the switch to goalkeeping after being sent to hospital for an asthma attack in Primary 6. Playing as a midfielder a year earlier, he had scored a goal from the centre circle and this remains one of his best football memories. Now we know why he can take those goal kicks for Singapore!

Indra Sahdan

Guess who's the new boy at Nanyang Polytechnic's Sports and Wellness Management course? He’s none other than footballer Indra Sahdan.  The Lions' skipper went back to school at the grand old age of 30. But, according to an adminstrator there, he has no problems blending in with his baby-face. Indra has also adjusted well to life with his teenage course-mates, whom he describes as being more vocal than the youths of yesteryear. However, he is not as comfortable with the module Statistical Theory for Business, which he describes as “a blur”. This is Indra's second attempt at scoring a diploma: in 1998, he quit after two years in Singapore Polytechnic's Electrical Engineering faculty to concentrate on his football.

Joan Liew

Three-time Asian bodybuilding champion Joan Liew runs her own business along with fellow national bodybuilder Augustine Lee. Unsurprisingly, they are in the gym business, having opened the Fitness Factory Boutique Gym in 2005. The gym counts TV and radio personality Jamie Yeo amongst its clients.