Singapore teenager Ng Zhe Nin wins historic wushu gold at Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games

SINGAPORE: Singaporean wushu exponent Ng Zhe Nin won a historic gold medal on Tuesday (Nov 3) in the women's taijiquan combined event at the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Senegal's capital, Dakar.

This is the first time wushu has been included in an Olympic programme as a medal sport, and Ng clinched gold at the Dakar Expo Center with a combined score of 18.713 points.

The 16-year-old placed first in the taijishan routine with a score of 9.353 points before topping the taijiquan segment with 9.360 points.

"I am really happy and proud, and definitely relieved that I have finally finished everything and won gold," Ng said while thanking her supporters.

"There's been a lot of ups and downs and a lot of hours of training tirelessly. But a lot of people have supported me throughout this whole journey, and I'm really grateful for every single one of them."

Ng, who started wushu at 10, has won multiple medals on the international stage.

In 2024, she bagged one gold and one silver at her first World Junior Wushu Championships.

She also earned two golds and a silver at this year's edition in Tianjin, China.

For this year's Youth Olympic Games, Ng said that she trained twice a day.

"I would spend a whole day at the training centre, sleeping and eating there," she said. "I did my best, and I think it definitely means a lot to me because I trained a lot for this."

Ng's win marks Singapore's first medal at this edition of the Youth Olympic Games and its first gold credited to the country at the Summer Youth Olympic Games since 2014.

Previous gold medals credited to Singapore at the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China came in 2014, when sailors Samantha Yom and Bernie Chin won the girls' and boys' Byte CII events respectively.

Singapore gymnast Tamara Ong also won gold at the Buenos Aires 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games as part of a mixed-nationality team, but medals from such events were not counted towards a country's overall medal tally.

This year, Singapore has 14 athletes competing across nine sports at Dakar, including sailing, table tennis and badminton. 

The Games, held from Oct 31 to Nov 13, were initially scheduled for 2022 but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.