Asian Games 2026: Sailor Ryan Lo’s honesty to his craft keeps him on course

Ryan Lo’s love for sailing was apparent to his mother, Dolly, early on.

In 2004, Lo, then a Primary 1 pupil at Tao Nan School, told her that his form teacher said he could join the sailing co-curricular activity (CCA).

While the 58-year-old thought he was too little, Ryan insisted as he was “very enthusiastic to join”.

His affinity for the sea is no surprise – his older siblings Man Yi and Jun Hao were both national sailors too.

A taste of international competition when he was 11 also solidified his ambition to compete at the Olympics.

The 29-year-old said: “From a young age, I was lucky that I had the support to attend many major events and world championships and it helped that I was able to perform quite well and improve at each stage, so that definitely gave me motivation.”

As he progressed, his commitment to sailing increasingly shaped the choices he made away from the water.

When he moved up to the Olympic laser class in 2015, the same year he was due to sit for his A-level examinations, he recognised that balancing the demands of elite sport and his studies would be difficult. He told his parents he wanted to pursue his tertiary education overseas.

Dolly then asked whether he wanted to leave Raffles Institution to do a foundation programme in Perth, Australia, which he eventually did.

Lo said: “I was sad to leave my friends and schoolmates, to leave that familiar atmosphere and environment and uproot myself from there.

“But I was determined to pursue this sailing path, and I was willing to do whatever it took to improve and perform well.”

That decision set the tone for the years that followed.

Over his career, he put his university studies on hold for 5½ years cumulatively while completing two Olympic cycles, participating in the Tokyo and Paris Games.

After the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, he enrolled at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, which made it easier to train and compete in Europe.

But after the first year, he paused his studies to give himself the best shot at preparing for the Paris Games.

He eventually attained an international business degree from James Cook University in 2026, when he took a temporary break from competitive sailing.

His has not been the most conventional route, but Dolly is perhaps the best placed to understand and respect her son’s wishes.

An athlete life mentor at the High Performance Sport Institute, the grandmother of three is a regular fixture at its The Kallang headquarters, where she befriends athletes and chats with them.

Staying true to this path has required Lo to be away from home for extended periods of time for training and competitions.

For Dolly, having her youngest child so far from home can be tough, and there were moments when she worried for his safety.

In March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic escalated globally, Lo cut short his training stint in Croatia and had to drive about 400km from Split to Zagreb to catch his flight back home.

Two days before his flight, a magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck the country, causing buildings to collapse and killing a teenager.

With the highway closed due to snow, Lo had to take a longer route to the airport – causing sleepless nights for his mum.

She said: “I miss him a lot but love can be shown in different ways.

“It’s not an easy road but the fact that he has the courage and the mental fortitude to want to do it and do it well inspires me because he doesn’t take shortcuts.”

In Japan for his fourth Asian Games, Lo will mount his title defence in the land of the samurai, who were guided by virtues – such as honesty – that resonate with his journey.

Over more than two decades, the reigning ILCA 7 Asian Games champion’s unwavering dedication and commitment has held strong and paid off.

At the 2025 men’s ILCA 7 World Championships, he finished 14th, then the best by a Singaporean sailor, which he surpassed in August after coming in seventh at the most recent edition in Ireland.

Now, he is enjoying the sport and relishing the opportunity to help the next generation.

He said: “Knowing that it’s definitely the tail end of my career, every chance I get to sail and compete is very precious.

“For me, it’s just trying to perform and repay the faith that has been placed in me all these years.”