SINGAPORE: It was after a competition in July last year that 23-year-old Singapore wushu exponent Kimberly Ong began to contemplate retirement.
Stricken by injuries throughout 2025, Ong recorded the first "Did Not Start" of a decade-long sporting career, after being in too much pain to compete.
"I did an event in the morning and I had a second event in the afternoon. But after the morning event, I just could not walk," Ong told CNA. "That one was quite hard on me. I think I just cried for the entire day."
While Ong initially planned to retire after the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games later this year, injuries changed all that. She retired in December last year.
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"The injuries kind of caused burnout, and it just got to a point where I couldn't see any point in continuing because the injuries just kept coming," said Ong, who clinched bronze at the Asian Games in 2023.
Another athlete who recently retired is Singapore's first open water Olympian Chantal Liew.
"It just felt like it was the correct time after the SEA Games to step away. I sort of saw it as a full circle moment because my debut on the national team was the 2015 SEA Games," she told CNA.
For distance runner Zubin Muncherji, losing joy factored into his decision to call it quits in December last year.
"When the fun is lost in the sport, the beauty is lost at the same time. And when you're not having fun, it's very hard to keep moving forward for sure," the 400m Singapore record holder said.
After struggling with countless injuries and the burnout of constant competition, particularly in the United States' NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) system, Muncherji recalled how the years leading up to his retirement were physically and mentally tough.
"I have tendonitis in so many different areas across my body, Achilles issues over the past four, five years. I continued doing it because I had such a huge passion for the sport, but it came to a certain point where I just really stopped enjoying it," he said.
"I think that was what really kind of sparked this decision (to retire). I had never really dreaded training truly until towards the end of my career."
Liew said there were times throughout her career when she felt like retiring.
After she missed out on qualifying for the 2024 Olympics by a mere 1.7 seconds, she asked herself if it would be worth putting herself through the churn again.
"Ever since then, I had framed swimming in my head as like a bad thing, and I didn't want to walk away from the sport after 20 whole years with a bad feeling in my mind," she added.
Ong said that while she still enjoyed wushu, it was frustrating not being able to perform at the level she knew she was capable of.
"Before all the injuries came, training was very fun for me and I also enjoyed competing. But in the last year of my career, it just became a chore," she added.
"As compared to the past few years, every year I could see some improvement. But for the first half of 2025, I felt that everything was very stagnant."
Knowing the right time to walk away is not always clear.
"It's almost like surfing. Surfers know not every wave is going to be a good wave. There are going to be waves that will dump you, spit you out," said Liew.
"But there will be these really, really good waves that you can ride all the way into shore and you're so happy after that.
"But the thing is, no matter what wave you catch, you know that you're going to have to turn around and pedal out against all the currents that are constantly coming in."
Singapore's Kimberly Ong clinched a bronze at the 2023 Asian Games on Sep 25, 2023. (Photo: SNOC/Eng Chin An)
The nature of high-performance sport means that there is always a major competition around the corner.
"It's like that sunk cost fallacy where you've already come so far," said Liew. "There's one (major competition) every couple of months, it's like, what's a couple of months (more to continue)?"
While this can sometimes make it tough for athletes to decide when to call it quits, it helped shape the decisions of those CNA spoke to.
In the case of Muncherji and Liew, they decided that their last meet would be the 2025 Southeast Asian Games.
While she was tempted to walk away from swimming after missing out on Olympic qualification, Liew said she would have been "very unhappy and dissatisfied" with life and swimming if she had left then.
"For the last two and a half, three years, I was like okay, I would just do one more SEA Games, and qualifying for the 800m kept me going," said the 29-year-old Muncherji.
Given that athletes have poured much of their lives into sport, letting go can be difficult.
"I was worried I wouldn't feel accomplished," said Muncherji.
"Unfortunately, I tied my entire success as a human being towards my success on the track. Even if I did well in school or something, I still didn't feel that same level of accomplishment that I did on the track, regardless of how big the test was."
Singapore's Chantal Liew ahead of the women's 10km open water event. (Photo: SportSG/Chanainut Thongratanachat)
Not being able to achieve personal targets can also weigh heavily.
"There were certain goals that I still had in the sport and I really wanted to fulfil those goals. Some got achieved, some didn't. But I guess that in the pursuit of those goals, I kind of lost having as much fun as I did before," said the runner.
At the same time, track also provided a sense of purpose, given that he was representing not just himself but the nation, Muncherji added.
Ms Pearline Chan, the director of high-performance athlete life at the High Performance Sport Institute (HPSI), said those contemplating retirement can face various challenges, including a loss of identity as an athlete and a change in routine.
Alongside the establishment of the HPSI, the high-performance athlete life division was formed in April 2025 to provide more structured support and planning for carded athletes.
For those contemplating retirement, the goal is for the athlete life team to be a means for athletes to voice their concerns.
"What we're trying to do is come in early ... for all the athletes we interact with and sort of plan that journey with them," said Ms Chan, a former national netballer.
"More than a sounding board, we do want to put in place actionable items for athletes."
This could include career preparation workshops or connecting with partners in an industry that an athlete might be interested in exploring post-retirement.
Those who spoke to CNA said that they are at peace with the decision to step away from sport.
Muncherji recalled how he felt a sense of "gratitude" immediately after wrapping up his last event, a 4x400m men's relay where Singapore took SEA Games bronze.
"I was so afraid of the end. Ironically enough, I was more afraid before it ended," he said.
"When I went back (after the event), I just thought back to everything I didn't do and couldn't do, but then I realised that there wasn't anything or any regrets that I had, which brought me a little bit of peace."
After he announced his retirement on social media, Muncherji recalled how many people reached out.
"It was nice to know that I kind of made a difference in the end," he added.
"All the other meets before that, there was a lot of internal turmoil. But after I swam that last relay race, I felt so at peace," added Liew, who clinched silver in the women's 10km open water event and followed it up with another silver in the open water mixed relay at the SEA Games.
"It was a really good feeling that I had given everything that I could, that I was very happy with the sport. That last swim felt like a love letter to swimming."
After moving on to their next phase of life, the athletes are enjoying the change of scenery.
"I was quite happy (to move on). I suddenly have more time," said Ong, a final year law student at the National University of Singapore who now coaches from time to time.
"Now that I quit the sport, I feel that I can appreciate the sport more. In that kind of high-performance circumstance, I find it is a bit hard to truly love the sport."
Liew, who works in the finance sector, said that she looks forward to her morning swims even more than when she was an athlete.
"Yes, I do miss (competitive swimming) to a certain extent ... (but) at the end of the day, when I was a professional athlete, it was a job. I don't miss that pressure, and I don't miss all of that stress surrounding doing the sport," she said.
"Now I can just enjoy swimming for what it is, in its purest form."
These days, injuries no longer faze Muncherji like they used to. In fact, he is rediscovering his love for the sport.
"It's weird, because it's kind of become the best part of my day," he said. "It's like I'm back to square one but without the additional pressures of myself and expectations from anyone."
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Stricken by injuries throughout 2025, Ong recorded the first "Did Not Start" of a decade-long sporting career, after being in too much pain to compete.
"I did an event in the morning and I had a second event in the afternoon. But after the morning event, I just could not walk," Ong told CNA. "That one was quite hard on me. I think I just cried for the entire day."
While Ong initially planned to retire after the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games later this year, injuries changed all that. She retired in December last year.
CNA Games
Show More Show Less
"The injuries kind of caused burnout, and it just got to a point where I couldn't see any point in continuing because the injuries just kept coming," said Ong, who clinched bronze at the Asian Games in 2023.
Another athlete who recently retired is Singapore's first open water Olympian Chantal Liew.
"It just felt like it was the correct time after the SEA Games to step away. I sort of saw it as a full circle moment because my debut on the national team was the 2015 SEA Games," she told CNA.
LOSING JOY, FEELING STAGNANT
For distance runner Zubin Muncherji, losing joy factored into his decision to call it quits in December last year.
"When the fun is lost in the sport, the beauty is lost at the same time. And when you're not having fun, it's very hard to keep moving forward for sure," the 400m Singapore record holder said.
After struggling with countless injuries and the burnout of constant competition, particularly in the United States' NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) system, Muncherji recalled how the years leading up to his retirement were physically and mentally tough.
"I have tendonitis in so many different areas across my body, Achilles issues over the past four, five years. I continued doing it because I had such a huge passion for the sport, but it came to a certain point where I just really stopped enjoying it," he said.
"I think that was what really kind of sparked this decision (to retire). I had never really dreaded training truly until towards the end of my career."
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Liew said there were times throughout her career when she felt like retiring.
After she missed out on qualifying for the 2024 Olympics by a mere 1.7 seconds, she asked herself if it would be worth putting herself through the churn again.
"Ever since then, I had framed swimming in my head as like a bad thing, and I didn't want to walk away from the sport after 20 whole years with a bad feeling in my mind," she added.
Ong said that while she still enjoyed wushu, it was frustrating not being able to perform at the level she knew she was capable of.
"Before all the injuries came, training was very fun for me and I also enjoyed competing. But in the last year of my career, it just became a chore," she added.
"As compared to the past few years, every year I could see some improvement. But for the first half of 2025, I felt that everything was very stagnant."
WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME?
Knowing the right time to walk away is not always clear.
"It's almost like surfing. Surfers know not every wave is going to be a good wave. There are going to be waves that will dump you, spit you out," said Liew.
"But there will be these really, really good waves that you can ride all the way into shore and you're so happy after that.
"But the thing is, no matter what wave you catch, you know that you're going to have to turn around and pedal out against all the currents that are constantly coming in."
Singapore's Kimberly Ong clinched a bronze at the 2023 Asian Games on Sep 25, 2023. (Photo: SNOC/Eng Chin An)
The nature of high-performance sport means that there is always a major competition around the corner.
"It's like that sunk cost fallacy where you've already come so far," said Liew. "There's one (major competition) every couple of months, it's like, what's a couple of months (more to continue)?"
While this can sometimes make it tough for athletes to decide when to call it quits, it helped shape the decisions of those CNA spoke to.
In the case of Muncherji and Liew, they decided that their last meet would be the 2025 Southeast Asian Games.
While she was tempted to walk away from swimming after missing out on Olympic qualification, Liew said she would have been "very unhappy and dissatisfied" with life and swimming if she had left then.
"For the last two and a half, three years, I was like okay, I would just do one more SEA Games, and qualifying for the 800m kept me going," said the 29-year-old Muncherji.
Given that athletes have poured much of their lives into sport, letting go can be difficult.
"I was worried I wouldn't feel accomplished," said Muncherji.
"Unfortunately, I tied my entire success as a human being towards my success on the track. Even if I did well in school or something, I still didn't feel that same level of accomplishment that I did on the track, regardless of how big the test was."
Singapore's Chantal Liew ahead of the women's 10km open water event. (Photo: SportSG/Chanainut Thongratanachat)
Not being able to achieve personal targets can also weigh heavily.
"There were certain goals that I still had in the sport and I really wanted to fulfil those goals. Some got achieved, some didn't. But I guess that in the pursuit of those goals, I kind of lost having as much fun as I did before," said the runner.
At the same time, track also provided a sense of purpose, given that he was representing not just himself but the nation, Muncherji added.
Ms Pearline Chan, the director of high-performance athlete life at the High Performance Sport Institute (HPSI), said those contemplating retirement can face various challenges, including a loss of identity as an athlete and a change in routine.
Alongside the establishment of the HPSI, the high-performance athlete life division was formed in April 2025 to provide more structured support and planning for carded athletes.
For those contemplating retirement, the goal is for the athlete life team to be a means for athletes to voice their concerns.
"What we're trying to do is come in early ... for all the athletes we interact with and sort of plan that journey with them," said Ms Chan, a former national netballer.
"More than a sounding board, we do want to put in place actionable items for athletes."
This could include career preparation workshops or connecting with partners in an industry that an athlete might be interested in exploring post-retirement.
FEAR OF THE END, FINDING PEACE
Those who spoke to CNA said that they are at peace with the decision to step away from sport.
Muncherji recalled how he felt a sense of "gratitude" immediately after wrapping up his last event, a 4x400m men's relay where Singapore took SEA Games bronze.
"I was so afraid of the end. Ironically enough, I was more afraid before it ended," he said.
"When I went back (after the event), I just thought back to everything I didn't do and couldn't do, but then I realised that there wasn't anything or any regrets that I had, which brought me a little bit of peace."
After he announced his retirement on social media, Muncherji recalled how many people reached out.
"It was nice to know that I kind of made a difference in the end," he added.
"All the other meets before that, there was a lot of internal turmoil. But after I swam that last relay race, I felt so at peace," added Liew, who clinched silver in the women's 10km open water event and followed it up with another silver in the open water mixed relay at the SEA Games.
"It was a really good feeling that I had given everything that I could, that I was very happy with the sport. That last swim felt like a love letter to swimming."
After moving on to their next phase of life, the athletes are enjoying the change of scenery.
"I was quite happy (to move on). I suddenly have more time," said Ong, a final year law student at the National University of Singapore who now coaches from time to time.
"Now that I quit the sport, I feel that I can appreciate the sport more. In that kind of high-performance circumstance, I find it is a bit hard to truly love the sport."
Liew, who works in the finance sector, said that she looks forward to her morning swims even more than when she was an athlete.
"Yes, I do miss (competitive swimming) to a certain extent ... (but) at the end of the day, when I was a professional athlete, it was a job. I don't miss that pressure, and I don't miss all of that stress surrounding doing the sport," she said.
"Now I can just enjoy swimming for what it is, in its purest form."
These days, injuries no longer faze Muncherji like they used to. In fact, he is rediscovering his love for the sport.
"It's weird, because it's kind of become the best part of my day," he said. "It's like I'm back to square one but without the additional pressures of myself and expectations from anyone."
Continue reading...