Singaporean kayaker Stephenie Chen targets Asian Games success
SINGAPORE – Stephenie Chen has five SEA Games gold medals, an Asian Games silver and she became the first Singaporean kayaker to make an Olympic C final in Paris 2024.
She eventually finished seventh out of eight in the women's canoe sprint K1 500m Final C.
Yet, Chen feels that she has not reached her maximum potential.
During her six-week post-Olympic break, she travelled to China, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea, before heading back to Australia in November to resume training.
And the 33-year-old plans to keep going.
She said: 'My coach felt like he needed to leave it up to me to decide what my next goal would be and how I wanted to approach it. The reason why I'm continuing is that I feel like I still have room for improvement.
'I want to be able to see where I get or how far I get, racing fearlessly. In this sport, there's always something to improve, whether it's fitness, technique, or my race plan and that constant challenge keeps me showing up and pushing to get better each season.'
Despite wanting to race fearlessly, Chen noted that did not mean she was competing with fear previously.
The pressure of preparing for back-to-back major events like the Asian Games in 2023 and the Paris Olympics made her very goal-oriented, leading to moments of self-doubt, she explained.
'I still had really good races at the Asian Games and Paris. But I had lot of self-doubt in my capabilities as a paddler. I could work a bit on my confidence,' said Chen, who spoke to The Straits Times from Poznan, Poland, where she is preparing for the International Canoe Federation (ICF) Sprint World Cup from May 22 to 25.
'I did as well as I could have in Paris. But purely looking at my numbers, I feel like I can do a lot better. At training, I have a lot better numbers.
'So just for this season, I'm just looking to enjoy the racing and see where I am without too much focus on the results.'
In her first major competition in 2025, the 33-year-old bagged a silver and a bronze at the May 8-10 Asian Canoe Confederation Canoe Sprint Asian Championships.
Stephenie Chen bagged a silver and a bronze at the May 8-10 Asian Canoe Confederation Canoe Sprint Asian Championships.
PHOTO: SINGAPORE CANOE FEDERATION
At the Yaohu International Aquatic Sports Centre in Nanchang, Jiangxi in China, Chen won silver in the women's kayak single 200m in 46.285sec, just behind Asian Games double gold medallist Wang Nan of China (45.073). Olga Shmelyova (47.432) of Kazakhstan took the bronze.
She also clinched a bronze in the kayak single 500m (2min 7.515sec), while Wang won gold in 2:03.159 and Uzbekistan's Arina Tanatmisheva (2:06.703) claimed the silver.
The rest of the season will see her focusing on World Cup competitions and training camps in Asia. Her goal is a gold medal at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan, though a second Olympic appearance at Los Angeles 2028 is not on the cards for now.
Chen, who won a silver in the K1 500m at the Hangzhou Asian Games, said: 'I like to try to better my results. For now, motivation is high. I will obviously hope to win the gold medal but every athlete hopes to do their best performance.'
A fourth outing at the Dec 9-20 SEA Games in Thailand could also be on her calendar, despite the biennial Games not featuring any women's kayak events.
Chen, who last competed at the 2015 Games in Singapore where she bagged two golds and a silver, could still paddle in the mixed kayak doubles 200m or 500m, or the kayak four 500m mixed team.
She said: 'I have not been to the SEA Games since 2015, because kayaking is not always part of the Games and when they had it, there were no women's only events.
'When there was (in 2022), I skipped it because I was preparing for the Asian Games. So I was looking forward to it this year but now there are no women's events again.
'But no, SEA Games is not off the table. The federation has not decided on what the combinations will be.'
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