Joscelin Yeo

Joscelin Yeo Wei Ling ( born May 2, 1979 in Seoul ) is a Singaporean politician, author and former world -class swimmer. Since the early 1990s, she went to for various multi-national sporting events, including at the Summer Olympics and Asian Games. Her fame, however, is based in their successes in various sweeps the Southeast Asia Games. During this she won in 16 years, in addition bronze and silver medals 40 gold medals and set a new record with this brand, by outbidding the 39 gold medals her compatriot Patricia Chan.

Career

Joscelin Yeo Wei Ling came on as the mean of three children of the mother Yeo Lee Choo to the world. Her two brothers and they were born at intervals of one year. My education began at the Methodist Girls ' School in Singapore and in 1995 she moved to Australia to the Melbourne Girls' Grammar School to attend can. Then she enrolled at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. From 1999 she studied at the University of California in Berkeley, California and then in 2001 followed her local coach at the University of Texas at Austin, where she attended the College of Education 's Department of Kinesiology and Health Education pedagogy as a major subject and in 2003 with a degree Point Average (GPA ) of 3.68 graduating as one of the year's best. For this reason, Wei Ling was the first local athlete with an annual $ 30,000 doped Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford in England, which she does not cashed.

Swimming career

The Singaporean decided at the age of seven years, first smaller swimming tournaments for themselves. Two years later, they began to promote their talent with specific training. Major share of their athletic development had their youth coach Kee Soon Bee, who later commented to the effect that it was very easy to train and always been very disciplined. Wei Ling always emphasized that it was their own decision to commit to the swimming and she was never pressured by anyone to do so.

Her debut at major competitions Wei Ling was already with only eleven years in 1990 at the Asian Games in Beijing. The public was in the 1993 Southeast Asian Games in her hometown Singapore attention to her when she was able to win nine gold medals and became not only the most successful competitor at the Games, but also for national sports icon for the first time. In the following twelve years, it secured for all other expenses of the Southeast Asia Games least three wins and could reach the third place at the Asian Games every eight years, over 100 meters butterfly.

During her time in Melbourne was Wei Ling by Bill Nelson and later trained at Berkeley by Michael Walker. This she followed upon their transfer also to Austin. During her sixteen year career, the Singaporean participated in seven Southeast Asian Games, Asian Games four, three Commonwealth Games and four Olympic Games (1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004). It thus has the most Olympic appearances all Singaporean athletes and was allowed to wear a special honor at the opening ceremony in Sydney in 2000 when the nations running the flag of Singapore. However, they did not make it at all Olympic Games to build on their achievements in Asian competitions and therefore looked particularly 2000 and 2004, some very sharp criticism from the local media exposed.

Actually, they had intended to end her career after the Southeast Asia Games 2005. There, however, they once again showed very good performance; she won six gold medals and swam the 100-meter butterfly in 00:59,91 minutes as first Südostasiatin under a minute. Inspired by this success, she decided to prepare for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Wei Ling swam at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in 2006, but then declared in January 2007, their final withdrawal from the sport due to motivational problems.

Following the resignation

Already in 2004, Wei Ling under the title On The Move: My Career, My Story published her autobiography in which she wrote on the load, always having to meet these expectations and the reasons outlining why the public it as the media perceive against unfriendly. After the end of her active career, she opened with her older brother Leonard, the swimming school Yeo's Aquatics. In 2009, she appointed the President Sellapan Ramanathan for a period of two and a half years for Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP ) in the Parliament of Singapore.

In the eighth season of the Singaporean sitcom Phua Chu Kang Wei Ling on Channel 5 last had a cameo appearance as the protagonist swam a race against them and hopelessly lost.

Records

During her long career, Joscelin Yeo Wei Ling held numerous national records, for example, over 50, 100 and 200 -meter freestyle and 200 and 400 meters individual medley. Of these, only those 200m individual medley still exists. Yeo Wei Ling has held, however, still record seven times at the Southeast Asia Games. In 2000, she broke together with Haley Cope, Staciana Stitts and Praphalsai Minpraphal as a university team from the University of California at Berkeley the season world record 4 x 50 meter medley at the short track and improved it to 1:49,23 minutes.

Awards

Wei Ling is regarded as the most prestigious Singaporean athlete in recent decades and has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards. In the years 1993, 1995 and 1998, she was appointed in the city-state Athlete of the Year and 1994 Sports Girl of the Year. That she did not get first-mentioned distinction often is due to a now again reversed the law, according to which an athlete could be awarded only three times.

The daily The Straits Times they listed in 1999 at the ninth position of the 50 largest Singaporean athletes. The National Olympic Committee awarded her the 2005 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to swimming in Singapore for a special price. As an athlete an ethnic minority who achieved a GPA of 3.2 or higher, it was presented at the University of Texas at Austin in 2003 and the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award.