5 things about Loh Kean Yew, Singapore’s badminton singles star

Updated Aug 02, 2024

Singapore badminton player Low Kean Yew is the first Singaporean to make it to the first Olympic quarter-final in 20 years (Photo: Sport Singapore/Jeremy Lee)

Cover Singapore badminton player Low Kean Yew is the first Singaporean to make it to the Olympic quarter-final in 20 years (Photo: Sport Singapore/Jeremy Lee)

Singapore badminton player Low Kean Yew is the first Singaporean to make it to the Olympic quarter-final in 20 years (Photo: Sport Singapore/Jeremy Lee)

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The Singapore athlete reached his highest world ranking of No. 3 in December 2022

In early November 2021, Singapore badminton player Loh Kean Yew ranked 39th in the world. A year later, he advanced to third place, according to the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) world rankings.

This was a career-high for Loh, a 2022 Tater Gen.T Leader of Tomorrow, and also the first time a Singapore men’s badminton player has ever ranked in the top three. The only other Singapore player to achieve the same ranking is Zarinah Abdullah, the country’s first professional female badminton player and a two-time Olympian, back in 1994.

Loh’s ascend in the global rankings came after he competed at Germany’s Hylo Open, where he got into the quarter-finals before being eliminated by Anthony Ginting of Indonesia.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics, he again made history as the first Olympian representing Singapore to reach the quarter-finals at the Games. He beat sixth-ranked Li Shifeng of China 23-21 and 21-15, to claim a spot in the top eight.

Here are a few more interesting facts about the young athlete.

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1. Malaysian by birth

Loh was born in Penang, Malaysia before he moved to Singapore on scholarship with the Singapore Sports School after being noticed for his badminton skills.

He played his first international game for Singapore in 2015, where he represented the country at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. There, he took home the bronze medal after being eliminated by Malaysia’s Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif in the men’s singles semi-finals. He also won bronze when he participated in the SEA Games in 2017 and 2019.

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2. He started playing at a young age but stopped for a while

At four years old, Loh picked up badminton as a fun sport to play with his brothers and neighbour. But at seven, he stopped playing after being looked down on by his seniors. It was only two years later when he picked up the sport again.

Within a few months of that, he joined the Penang state team and underwent training together with one of his older brother, Low Kean Hean, who is also a member of the Singapore national team, at the Penang Badminton Association until he was 12.

In 2009, he took part in the National Junior Grand Prix Finals and defeated Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, a 2021 Gen.T honouree, in the under-12 final.

3. He moved to Singapore without his parents

At 13 years old, Loh moved to Singapore to attend the Singapore Sports School while his family remained in Malaysia. Relatives and family friends took care of him during this period, as he continued to train at the academy under Kelvin Ho, a former local national shuttler and currently Singapore’s singles head coach.

After graduating from the sports school, he went on to enrol into a local polytechnic, but dropped out after a year to focus on playing badminton full-time.

4. His climb to the top

The first senior tournament that Loh kicked off his professional career with was the Chinese Taipei Open in 2012. Then only 15 years old, he participated in the men’s singles and the mixed doubles, but failed to proceed beyond the second round for both.

Since then, he has gone on to play in numerous other major matches worldwide, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the BWF World Championships.

In 2022, he has also been named Sportsman of the Year at the Singapore Sports Awards and BWF Player of the Year.

5. He once defeated the world’s top-ranking player

In December 2021, Loh made global headlines when he won the men’s singles match at the BWF World Championships, which included defeating world no.1 Viktor Axelson. With that, he became Singapore’s first world champion in the sport.

See more honourees in Sports on the Gen.T Leaders of Tomorrow 2022.

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Topics

Olympics Paris 2024 Athlete Sportsmen Badminton