Stephenie Chen was fourth in the women's K1 500m at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games. Photo: SportSG/ Bryan Foo
Canoeist Stephenie Chen’s racing experience of more than 350 races over nearly two decades have yielded six SEA Games golds and an Asian Games silver. But even a seasoned competitor such as the Paris 2024 Olympian still gets nervous before races.
“In general, I am always nervous. It doesn’t matter how big the race is; I still get nervous when I do the national trials and stuff like that. The nerves are just something that are always going to be with me. I’ve accepted that as part of sport for me, and I believe if you don’t have nerves, then you’re not really doing the sport well, lah,” said Chen after her fifth Asian Games outing at the Aichi-Nagoya Games, where she was fourth in 2min 00.617sec in the K1 500m final on 26 Sep.
Stephenie Chen is competing in her fifth Asian Games. Photo: SportSG/ Bryan Foo
At the Miyoshi Lake Canoe Course, the Hangzhou 2022 silver medallist had been within the podium positions in the first part of the race, but was overtaken by Kazakh Stella Sukhanova around the halfway mark. China’s Wang Nan, the two-time Asian champion in this event, won the race in 1:55.999 ahead of Arina Tanatmisheva of Uzbekistan (1:57.769) and Sukhanova (1:59.688).
Chen, who was unperturbed by the rain pelting down on the course, said: “We’re an outdoor sport, it’s very expected for conditions to change rapidly especially in the past few years with the race courses … this is actually very mild.
“I’m just very grateful to be here. Obviously, I would have liked the medal. But it’s been an interesting couple of years and I’m glad I still have all the support given to me by my family and my coach, so I’m really happy I did this for me, for them, and for the country. I’m glad that I finished it. I didn’t have the best of starts, but I thought it was still a pretty good race going into it.”
Referring to teammates Georgia Ng, Grace Ng, Kirsten Heng and Lim Kai Jing, who are all Asiad debutants, Chen added: “It’s really nice to see that we finally have a huge girls’ team here. I’ve trained with them for a couple of weeks when they come and train with me, or when we race together, and it’s really heartening to see them come up and band together. I hope they can carry the flag forward into the future.”
Chen, who has been training in Australia since 2023, made her Asiad debut in 2010. Acknowledging that greater expectations are a result of her experience and achievements, she said: “I just generally take it as support and believe in what I’m doing. As always, I’m very glad that Singapore and Sport Singapore trust me to do what I need to do … I’m very grateful for that.
“I hope I’m giving (the newer members of the team) a good example to follow and learn from.”
She has certainly inspired teammate Tristan Loo, who finished eighth in 1:52.170 in the men’s K1 500m final on the last day of the canoe sprint event.
The 20-year-old said: “I think Steph is the best canoeing athlete that Singapore has produced, but there are also other guys like Lucas Teo – he’s been in this sport for so long, he’s even coached us and he was still going at it last year. I feel like longevity-wise, if everything aligns, I do want to stay in this sport and really keep on fighting all the way.”
Loo was fired up after his Asian Games debut, having overcome the pressure he felt ahead of the semi-finals on the same day.
“I just kept on thinking, ‘What if I don’t make the finals?’ That’ll be quite embarrassing … but I just focused on what I could do and executed the race plan, and it worked out pretty decently,” he said.
“After that, I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders and I managed to fight. I’m really proud and grateful to be representing Singapore here and hopefully in the next few Asian Games, I’ll be back and I’ll be even faster.”
The 20th Asian Games are held in Japan from 19 September to 4 October 2026. For the latest Team Singapore coverage and news, follow Team Singapore on their social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) or visit the official Team Singapore website.