Singapore Aquatics rejects Quah Ting Wen's Paris Olympics appeal

SINGAPORE: An appeal by swimmer Quah Ting Wen for a spot in the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris has been rejected by the sport's national governing body Singapore Aquatics (SAQ), the 31-year-old confirmed with CNA on Monday (July 8).

She received an email, seen by CNA, at about 10pm on Sunday informing her of the decision. 

Quah’s name was missing from the 22-athlete list at the Team Singapore flag presentation ceremony on Saturday, while swimmer Gan Ching Hwee was included.

Gan is set to replace Quah in the women’s 4x100m medley relay at the Paris Games.

The move left Quah confused and frustrated, as she had received initial confirmation of her place at this year's Olympics, in what would have been her fourth outing.

Quah said that she had signed documents by SAQ and the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) confirming her participation in the Olympics on Thursday. 

“After signing everything on Thursday, I took out my luggage and I was like, let’s get going (to Paris),” she said. 

As a result, the initial omission from the team came as a shock to Quah when she first heard about it on Friday, a move that confused her given its “last minute” nature.

As a team, Quah, with sister Jing Wen and national teammates Letitia Sim and Levenia Sim, met the Olympic qualifying criteria for the 4x100m medley relay at the world championships in February.

Of the four swimmers, Letitia was the only one who met the "A" cut, in the 100m breaststroke. Unlike the individual events, there are no Olympic “A” cut times for relay qualification.

As such, global governing body World Aquatics granted Singapore an exemption to allow three relay-only swimmers to compete instead of the maximum of two.

However, World Aquatics later offered Gan an invitation to