Skater Amelia Chua gets her dream debut at Winter YOG
For the first time in her life, national short track speed skater Amelia Chua spent Christmas away from home last December.
Based in Nottingham, England, for her studies and training, the 17-year-old received a ticket from her parents to fly home to Singapore for the Christmas season. But she chose to stay in England to train for the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG).
Just a month before that, the teenager had earned a quota spot at the Jan 19-Feb 1 Gangwon Games, after the withdrawal of one of the countries from the quadrennial event.
She said: “It was tough at first because this was my first time spending Christmas away from home and my family and I had already missed out celebrating my birthday (in October) with them.
“But I’m grateful to be able to train with the UK team here and for the support from the coaches and also the families of my teammates here, so I was not completely alone during the holiday season.”
Staying put in England, where she is training and studying at the University of Nottingham International College, was key for her to prepare for the biggest competition of her career.
Back home, she is only able to train on ice for two days a week – Singapore’s only Olympic-sized ice skating rink at JCube closed last August – while gets six days in the United Kingdom.
All this extra work was worth it for Amelia, who has dreamt of competing in the Winter YOG since she was a young girl.
She started recreational figure skating with her family in 2012 but switched to short track speed skating two years later after watching the Sochi Winter Olympics on television.
Amelia said: “I liked how the races were, they were really exciting. All the overtaking, even the crashes and how fast-paced the races would be... I was very intrigued, impressed and in awe of how the skaters were skating so I really wanted to give it a shot.
“It was hard initially because it’s two different disciplines but I was more into doing the fast-paced action, it felt more comfortable to me than doing the graceful figure skating things.”
She has been hooked on the sport since. Even a crash and an injured knee a week before her first regional competition in 2016 could not stop her from skating.
In Gangwon, Amelia is aiming to progress as far as she can and she is also looking forward to meeting her fellow athletes, some of whom she met at a camp in Korea in 2023.
She said: “I’m really excited to be representing Singapore at the YOG, it’s a huge honour and I’m very proud that I’ve come this far in my sport... It’s always been my dream to represent Singapore on such a huge stage since I picked up skating in 2014.
“I’ve always dreamt of going to the Olympics and this is just a major personal milestone, it’s a step in the right direction for where I want to be in my career.”
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