\n<\/p>\n
But there were bumps along the way.<\/p>\n
Prior to the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the long-distance specialist had initially received an invitation after meeting a “B” cut time for the 1,500m freestyle, but missed out after compatriot Quah Ting Wen’s appeal was successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely was a big blow for her because she always worked so hard for it,\u201d said Chia.<\/p>\n
There are also rocky periods in their relationship during the pandemic, Gan said.<\/p>\n
“He really taught me a lot, and then as I went through my teenage years, I started to \u2026 have my own thoughts, be a bit more rebellious,” she added.<\/p>\n
“Our relationship was quite rocky over COVID-19 (pandemic) especially, because I also wasn’t seeing results and I was feeling very frustrated training alone.”<\/p>\n
There were even times when she would go an entire training session without uttering a word to Chia, recalled Gan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThinking back, I could have communicated a little bit better,” said Chia.<\/p>\n
“But of course, as a coach, I’m also learning. I was not an Olympic athlete, I was just a school and club swimmer. I\u2019ve never represented Singapore before.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll my swimmers have surpassed my own personal level of performance as a swimmer. So I have to keep learning as much as I can in order to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the help of a sports psychologist who acted as the \u201cbridge\u201d between the pair, they worked things out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as I’m also advancing to the senior level, it’s also his first time coaching like someone who’s going to world championships or trying to make the Olympics,\u201d said Gan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe gave each other enough grace there, and then worked it through eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
A \u201cROCKY\u201d RELATIONSHIP? But there were bumps along the way. Prior to the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the long-distance specialist had initially received an invitation…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--WKAicqyV--\/c_crop,h_842,w_1498,x_0,y_628\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/09\/24\/asian_games_eugene.jpeg?itok=dQwSDEJW","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18337,7007,2032,43,5530,1550,14638,2414,22,297,11355,30642],"class_list":["post-87964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-belief","tag-ching","tag-coach","tag-gan","tag-heights","tag-hwee","tag-longtime","tag-pushing","tag-singapore","tag-star","tag-swimmer","tag-unwavering","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}