Asian Games 2026: Stephenie Chen’s loyalty to kayaking helps her stay the course

Twice, Stephenie Chen came agonisingly close to an Olympic debut in Tokyo.

Twice, she fell short by less than a second on consecutive days.

Both painful near-misses, along with injuries and countless calluses, have shaped the national kayaker’s journey in the sport. 

One of the toughest moments in her career came at the 2021 Asian Olympic qualifiers in Pattaya, where only the winner earned a ticket to Tokyo. She finished second in the K1 500m, just 0.938sec behind Kazakhstan’s Natalya Sergeyeva. 

A day later came an even crueller blow. Chen was third in the K1 200m in 40.325sec, only 0.067sec behind Japan’s Yuka Ono (40.258), who claimed the only spot as Kazakhstan had already qualified.

Still, Chen refused to walk away.

The 34-year-old said: “There were tears of course. I’m a very emotional person when it comes to kayaking. It was a case of telling myself that everyone has their losses, it’s just how you deal with them.”

Spending three weeks in solitude at the Grand Hyatt Singapore during the pandemic-enforced quarantine after the event, she emerged with a resolve to keep going.

”That 21-day quarantine was one of the best holidays of my life,” she said.

“It gave me a lot of time to reflect on my journey and made me think about what I wanted from the sport, and what I wanted to achieve.”

Chen started kayaking in 2009 when her older sister introduced her to the sport. She joined her Catholic Junior College team and was recruited for the national junior team. 

Since then, she has won six SEA Games golds, an Asian Games silver and in 2024 she made her long-awaited debut at the Paris Games, where she notched a historic Olympic C final appearance.

Chen credited her parents’ support and the companionship of her sisters Sarah, Andrea, and Abigail for her longevity in the sport. In the early days, the sisters would leave their Boon Lay home early in the morning - with paddles in their hands - to travel to Kallang or MacRitchie Reservoir for training.

At the Asiad in Nagoya, Chen will arrive as the veteran aiming to bag another medal.

She has been training on the Gold Coast, Australia, since 2023, clocking in about 10 sessions - 8km to 15km on the water - per week at Varsity Lakes. Training overseas full-time has also meant missing birthdays, family milestones and much of a social life, though Chen prefers to call them “choices”, and not sacrifices.

While she has not thought of her future beyond the Asiad, Chen remains loyal to her sport and committed to performing to her best abilities in a kayak.

Chen said: “Over the years, I haven’t had continued success. There are definitely moments where I feel like absolute crap, and moments… where I do question whether it is time to retire.

“At the start of every season, when I set my goal, there’s a plan in place that’s designed for success. Things don’t always go the way I want, so it can get tough to stay the course. What’s important is taking a step back, looking at what’s working and what isn’t, and asking why. 

“If it’s a ‘you’ problem, fix yourself. If it’s just how things have played out, then you have to trust the process, decide whether changes are needed, and keep moving forward.”