first visited Singapore in 2007 to help his older brother in a trial to enter Singapore Sports School’s Badminton Academy, it took only 10 minutes for the academy’s general manager Desmond Tan to notice the younger sibling.
Mr Tan remembered that when Loh, who had come from Penang in Malaysia where his family still lives, did not enjoy his time at the school at first. He was living at the accommodation in the school while his parents remained in George Town. He wrote in a social media post on Monday on his victory: “Singapore Badminton Association, Singapore Sports Institute, Li-ning, my coaches, teammates and training partners, physios and the sports medicine and science team, my family, friends and supporters — thank you for believing in me and for being there for me.”
After his successful trial, Loh moved to Singapore and enrolled into the Badminton Academy at SSP’s four-year programme in 2010 at the age of 13 under the Foreign Sports Scholarship by SBA.The academy had started alongside SSP when it was opened in 2004, and it allowed student-athletes to train twice a day while managing their academic life, instead of the usual once a day at mainstream schools.
Mr Tan said that despite Loh’s meteoric rise and achievements, there are still improvements that can be made to the badminton programme at SSP. For instance, there are constantly new findings in sports science that the academy can tap on, and more can be done in helping athletes transit out of SSP and into the national team.
He recalled an instance when Loh was about to compete with Chinese two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan in 2019. “I cannot describe the feeling, it was like jubilation, relief, it’s really everything,” said Mr Tan. “When he won it was as if I also won the match as well.”