Singapore swimmer Amanda Lim targets best Asian Games yet in final bow

SINGAPORE: After two decades of competitive swimming, Singapore swimmer Amanda Lim heads into what she expects will be her final Asian Games with a simple ambition – to make it her best.

The 33-year-old will arrive in Nagoya on the back of a new national record she set in the women’s 50m freestyle in May.

Her time of 24.77sec eclipsed the previous mark of 24.92s set by Quah Ting Wen in 2019, giving Lim confidence that there could still be more to come when the Asian Games swimming programme begins on Sunday (Sep 20).

“I’m pretty sure this is going to be my last one,” she said.

“But, with that being said, I’m not going in with the mindset of, ‘Is this going to be my last Asian Games?’ Instead, I’m thinking about how I can make this last Asian Games my best.”

STILL CHASING THAT "1 PER CENT"

Nagoya will mark Lim’s fifth appearance at the continental Games, where she has yet to win a medal.

But medals and timings are not the only measures by which she will judge her campaign.

“Even if I don’t swim the best time, or even if I don’t get a medal, I feel like the prep that I had in the past year, I’ve learned so much,” she said.

“I’ve grown so much as a person, and the most important thing is I’m swimming the fastest I’ve ever swum.”

Lim has been a fixture in Singapore swimming for much of the past two decades.

She won six straight SEA Games titles in the 50m freestyle from 2009 to 2019, and has also collected 21 gold medals at the regional Games.

But behind the medals has been a constant search for improvement.

“I thought just by showing up and by doing the work, it will make me a great athlete. And I did become a great athlete,” she said.

“I had to go through all of those experiences that I’ve had in the past to actually be where I'm today, and take the very courageous extra step to step out of my comfort zone and keep finding that 1 per cent on how I can be faster at 33.”

Much of her preparation this year has focused on building strength and power, as well as improving her mobility and body position in the pool.

With the Asian Games approaching, Lim said her focus has shifted to what swimmers call “central nervous system priming” – preparing her body to react explosively in an event decided by fractions of a second.

“In the 50m, when you need to switch on, you need to switch on,” she said.

LIFE AFTER SWIMMING

The swimming programme in Nagoya starts on Sunday, with 41 gold medals to be awarded across six days of competition.

Lim will be among the oldest athletes in Singapore’s aquatics team, with close to 30 swimmers heading to the Games.

At the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou, Singapore’s swimmers won one medal, with Teong Tzen Wei taking silver in the men’s 50m butterfly.

When her competitive career eventually ends, Lim looks forward to focusing on her career in human resource consulting and spending more time with friends and family.

She acknowledged, however, that adjusting to life outside competitive swimming may not be easy.

Beyond the medals and records, Lim hopes to be remembered for her resilience in the sport.

“Medals, records are meant to be broken, and there are going to be swimmers that are going to be coming up faster than me in the future, and I’m excited for that,” she said.

“I hope that people would see me as someone who decided to continue to stay in the sport, even though there were many burnout years.

“There were super high experiences in swimming, and there were also super low ones. But those experiences, money can’t buy them.”