Our annual GRAZIA Game Changers initiative celebrates bold ambition and fearless innovation. These are the people reshaping industries, communities, and culture—one daring move at a time.
Here, meet Quah Ting Wen. Through years of dedication as a professional swimmer, she has become one of Singapore’s most decorated athletes, building her career on self‑belief, resilience, and the idea that winning comes from success both in and out of the pool.
What inspired you to pursue this path? Was there a defining moment that set you on this journey?
As the oldest of three, I spent a lot of time in the pool as a child, and my parents enrolled me in water safety courses when I was five or six so I’d be comfortable in the water. After that, they asked if I wanted to learn the four strokes, and I simply said yes.
There wasn’t really one defining moment—it was a gradual progression. I went from learning technique with a very technical coach, to doing junior races, then swimming for school. When the Singapore Swimming Association launched the National Training Centre in 2004, I made the cut at 12, and that’s when things became more serious and competitive.
More than anything, I stayed in the sport because my parents were always incredibly supportive without ever being pushy. Their attitude was always: do your best, enjoy it, and if you’re happy, we’ll support you. I think that’s a big part of why I stayed in swimming for so long.
Your work has reshaped the landscape of sports. What motivated you to challenge the status quo?
Again, I go back to having a very supportive environment. Without the blessing of my parents, I would not have felt that I had the space or the opportunity to try being a student athlete and then transitioning into being a professional athlete.
I don’t think it’s a very viable profession in Singapore. It doesn’t pay a lot, and a lot of my peers over the years would retire from the sport for different reasons: exams; A-levels; boys going to the army. Once people entered university, social life and pressures from school took priority. There were people who swam all through university and then retired after that to start their jobs and adult life.
But throughout it all, I think I was lucky enough to be given that feeling of choice, and that allowed me to make that decision after college to give professional swimming a try. For me, it’s always been about reaching my potential. I like to challenge myself to see how good I can be.
How does having your brother and sister as swimmers help you feel supported in sports?
I tell a lot of people this, but one of the reasons why I’ve swum to this point is because I still have my siblings with me. A lot of people retire along the way, and at some point I hit a point where everyone my age had stopped swimming. Every year that I continued to compete was another year training with people younger and younger. Last year, I trained for the SEA Games in Thailand with kids from the age of 14 to about 24, and I am the oldest on the team by a lot. Having my siblings with me was great because I had emotional, mental, and physical support.
We have this unique bond. My teammates know me really well as a swimmer and a teammate, but perhaps not as deeply as a person. People outside the pool know me as a person, but not so much as a competitor. My siblings know me as both. I think that has created quite an interesting and beautiful relationship. And I like it, because it brings awareness to how special and how lucky I am.
Have you ever faced a moment of self-doubt? How did you push past it?
I think there are different phases of life and different phases of my career where there are different kinds of doubt. A big one was when I graduated from university. There was self-doubt in terms of continuing to swim. It sounds like it was an easy decision to continue being a pro athlete—and yes, that option was available to me because I had the support—but I knew it was going to be life-changing, so it took me a long time to weigh the pros and cons. I wasn’t sure if I was good enough or if it would be worth my time. Every year that I swam, my peers from university would be climbing the corporate ladder—moving, learning, growing in different ways.
There were times when I’d meet classmates for dinner and everyone would be talking about work. When it came to my turn, I’d feel a sense of shame because I was talking about the same thing I’d been doing since I was eight. It felt almost wrong, like I was doing something fun while everyone else was doing something purposeful. The moment I knew I was proud of what I was doing was when I had to fill up a customs form while travelling. There’s a section that asks for your profession. I realised I was really settled in myself when I wrote down “athlete” and felt a sense of pride.
What does success mean to you, and has that definition evolved over time?
I think success in the beginning was quite simplistic. It was very black and white—being the best, winning, pushing boundaries, getting faster, winning as many gold medals as possible. Over time, with growing older and going through different stages of life, I realised life is much more intricate.
It’s great to have a goal, but it’s also about how you work towards it—how you make that journey more fruitful, more purposeful and joyful. It’s definitely changed since I was 12 or 13. And I think part of it is just growing. I don’t push this idea onto younger people because I understand that at 16, your worldview is different. It’s a learning process, and the beauty is in figuring it out for yourself. It’s creating an environment of quality around you that supports you in pushing yourself, not just to win but to grow in any way you want. Peace of mind is very underrated. We’re so caught up trying to grind and push that we lose the joy of the pursuit.
It’s great to have a goal, but it’s also about how you work towards it—how you make that journey more fruitful, more purposeful and joyful.
Has that mindset helped you become the most decorated SEA Games athlete?
Yes, I think so. I am a little bit ashamed to say that it happened later than I hoped. Being a professional athlete is my career, and for a long time after graduating in 2014, my mindset was about staying relevant and continuing to win. That took up a lot of my mental capacity and wasn’t healthy.
There was a switch during the SEA Games in Cambodia in 2023. I thought I might be done, so I told myself if this was my last Games, I wanted to enjoy it. That was the most fun I’d had in a long time at a competition. I was more relaxed and just focused on doing my best. I ended up swimming very well. I still put pressure on myself, but now there’s also an understanding that the moment is fleeting, and I should enjoy it. That has helped a lot in recent years, even during tough training days.
What’s a belief or idea you held at the start of your career that you’ve completely rethought?
The idea that athletes can’t be extremely feminine. I started my swimming journey quite early, when I was 12, and so my life was quite different from that of a lot of my peers. For them, it was school, extracurriculars and social time. I didn’t have that as much. But even then, I’d always loved fashion—I used to flip through magazines, sketch outfits, and admire beautiful jewellery and clothes. As I got deeper into sport, I kept that side of myself private. I felt that being an athlete meant being gritty, sweaty and almost masculine. Over time, I’ve completely rethought that. Seeing more female athletes embrace beauty and fashion has been so empowering, and it has made me more open about that part of who I am. Now, I truly believe you can be both athletic and feminine—you don’t have to choose.
What’s next for you? How do you plan to keep changing the game?
I started coaching on the side. At first it was for extra money, but now, I really enjoy working with kids. Through that, I realised many kids were sharing things with me that went beyond swimming—things better suited for conversations with parents or teachers. Some of them don’t have that outlet.
At some point, I also felt like sharing my experience or opinions were not enough for these kids. I wanted to be better equipped to handle those moments, so last year I started my master’s in counseling and therapy. I’ve been thinking about it since 2022, but only took the step recently. It’s been enjoyable, and it’s shown me that there are other things you’re capable of doing.
I’d like to share what I’ve learned to give back to the swimming community and beyond, especially with youths. Just small bits of change here and there.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Photography Joel Low
Creative Direction Kelly Hsu
Styling Marisa Xin
Hair Sveta Klyn/The Suburbs Studio, using Goldwell
Makeup Kat Zhang/ The Suburbs Studio, using Armani Beauty
Producer Cheryl Lai-Lim
Photography assistant Eddie Teo
Fashion assistant Nur Hazwani
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