After a long wait, this Singaporean sailor is ready to compete with the best of the Olympics

Singapore: There is often only wind, water and waiting at sea.

The clock is ticking, boats and sailors are at a standstill. They expect them to need conditions for them.

For other athletes, patience is a virtue. But for sailors, it is necessary.

It’s probably the only sport that (competitors) have to wait that long, said 24-year-old Ryan Lo.

Too much yet? You are told to wait. Too windy? You are told to wait.

Sometimes on the water. Other times, on land.

During the race in Spain, Lo spent a total of 11 hours outside in the water when he started until he returned to the beach. The only thing he could watch was one race during which it could have lasted three.

There are many things that can delay our races, he added with a laugh. In some cases, we wait all day and nothing happens.

But for Lille, waiting for hours comes in another nature, especially when he’s been waiting much longer for the biggest race of his life.

YOUR FAMILY

One of Los’s earliest memories of the sport was at sea with the family. This boat was piloted by half-sister Man Yi.

I really don’t remember how I felt when I started sailing. (But) I remember going to my sister’s boat at a young age, I remember it was pretty fun, Lo recalled.

The soft-spoken Lo took up the sport at the age of seven because it was offered as a supplementary program for his elementary school (CCA). By then, his siblings were already sailing competitively.

The first year was almost just learning the basics … and then the second year, if I’m not wrong, I wasn’t so sailing, he said.

So I did other things like table tennis, a Chinese orchestra – I really don’t like it – and a few other sports. “

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But the taste of competition pulled him back.

It wasn’t until I started the race in Primary that I really started to enjoy it and became more interested in sailing, he explained.

From then on, I think you can say I never looked back, and I just kept going.

When he was in Primary fourth, Lo already represented Singapore in Optimist-class overseas races where children used a smaller sailboat.

Man Yi, who also won gold at the Laser Radial in the 2005 SEA Games, and Los’s half-brother Jun Hao, who won silver in the 2007 SEA Games, one day inspired Locould to compete at the top level.

I was definitely excited to follow in their footsteps, and (they) were my benchmarks and hoped to repeat similar goals in SEA games, Lo said.

I’ve been through what they experienced, so they understand how it feels and how it felt.

Man Yi later continued to represent Singapore at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

I’m pretty sure I was pretty proud (of him). I have a feeling I was talking about it with my friends, but at that age I probably didn’t understand its significance so much.

The weight, the appreciation, of all these events really only kicked me at my later stage as a teenager.

At the age of 13, Lo competed in his first Asian games and won a bronze in the boys ’Optimist race.

At the time, we had a good Optimist team, a good lineup, and we were very serious … in our approach to training and competition compared to other people of our age and other sailors, Lo recalled.

It wasn’t so much about us having fun and more about trying to go to events and succeed well and perform. We had expectations to perform in what we were able to do at the time.

As he grew up, Lo’s biggest challenge was moving to the adult level.

The transition from youth to parent is a very big leap for everyone, and Ifelt had to start again from scratch (every time) because you have guys 10, 20 years older who compete at the same level, he added.

PRIVATE RYAN TRAINING

His National Service (NS) posed new challenges that he managed to navigate successfully.

While most individuals at Sembawang Camp may have dreamed of leaving on the weekend, Saturdays and Sundays had a different meaning for private Ryan Ryan.

It was his time to get in the water.

This was because he had set a goal for himself before recruiting – he was trying to do in Tokyo in 2020.

During NS, I had already practiced as much as I could. So my campaign started back in 2016 when I went into the military, said Lo, who was an amphibious technician in the military days.

I went through NSand and tried to do as much as I could outside of NS to improve areas I could manage to help with sailing. So when I quit NS, I could be in the best possible condition.

Exercises almost every weekday were vital for him to be able to do physical fitness and gym work, and on the weekends exercises were held in the waters.

We would have normal working hours like 7.30 – 5.30 or6. And then when I booked the reservation, I went straight to the (Singapore) sports facility and then to either my gym or my heart, he recalled.

Going was not always easy.

There were times when I got frustrated – quite many times and a little down to see other sailors competing with my age group moving (to the next level) and competing with other guys. Seeing other sailors compete around the world when I was at home in Singapore and I couldn’t compete, ”Lo recalled.

“But I knew what was my target, which was the Olympics, and I was just trying to do my best.

To further his preparations, Lo decided to postpone his university studies for two years until the Olympics.

I had pretty much a catch, so I didn’t have to think much about it – I knew I had to focus full time on sailing, my Olympic campaign if I wanted to get a chance to get in, he explained.

It made quite sense to me to take two years after NS to focus full time in Tokyo, with the intention of starting sleep right after Tokyo 2020.

After graduating from NS in July 2018, Los first shot in the Tokyo qualifier at the World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. But he was only able to finish 79th.

Then came the Asian Games later that year. Lo won the bronze, but was not the only qualifying place for the Olympics.

I knew I could have finished better than what I did, but that’s what it is.

After the 2019 World Championships in Japan, when he didn’t reach a new level, Lo got one more qualifier – the Asian Sailing Championships in March 2020.

However, the competition was postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Knowing that you don’t have the qualifications yet, the qualification stress, it lingers in your mind. It wasn’t a great feeling, Lo said.

READ: Sailing: Singapore’s Ryan Lo and Amanda Ng qualify for the Tokyo Olympics after their victories at the Mussanah Open

It was very uncertain. We didn’t even know it was April – they only confirmed it three weeks before, not earlier, before the start.

But Lo duly delivered at the Mussanah Open in Oman earlier this year. He dominated the competition and secured his Olympics.

But it was just a step towards a larger goal.

After all, the ultimate goal is not access. Ultimately, I want to succeed in the Olympics, qualifying is part of the process, Lo said.

I want to go to the Olympics and give it my best shot – I just don’t go there to compete and form the numbers I want to give my best and let the other sailors run for their money.

I always try to be the best I can be

There will be an additional challenge in Tokyo – the heated summer heat.

I think the most significant challenge for every sailor out there is the weather, the heat. So based on past experience during this time (since), Japan is really hot, hot and humid, said Lo, who participated in the Olympics in the same place in 2019.

Lo believes that all the waiting has been helpful.

Postponing the Olympics helped me a lot as I progressed as a sailor, both physically and technically, he said.

Although the results do not really show the whole, the overall picture, but based on recent results (has) certainly made progress from previous years, is definitely a big step forward.

Now, older, stronger and wiser, he is returning to Japan.

(There’s) some satisfaction in doing it and I’m there (together) with top sailors, the best athletes in the world, explained Lo, who is currently ranked tenth in the world in the Laser Standard class.

But at the same time, I’m also there doing my job and hopefully making the country proud.

Given how long it has taken him to get to Tokyo, any expectation he faces in Enoshima’s waters is unlikely to stop Lo from concentrating.

After all, when it comes to patience, he has had practical experience in his lifetime.