Paralympic swimming medallist Theresa Goh makes sporting comeback with shooting

Former national para-swimmer Theresa Goh is back competing in shooting after coming out of retirement. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO

Kimberly Kwek

UPDATED Jun 22, 2025, 12:01 AM

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SINGAPORE – Lining up at the Changwon International Shooting Range earlier in June, Theresa Goh felt the adrenaline surge, her heart racing and her mind pulling in another direction as she worked to bring it back.

She was competing at the Changwon 2025 World Shooting Para Sport World Cup – her first international outing as a shooter – but the rush was anything but unfamiliar.

These were sensations Goh had grown accustomed to after two decades of competing in the pool.

Born with spina bifida – a condition in which the spine and spinal cord do not form properly – Goh went on to become Singapore’s first female Paralympic swimmer at Athens 2004, the country’s first swimming world champion in 2006, a world-record holder and a Paralympic bronze medallistat Rio de Janeiro 2016.

Since retiring from swimming in 2019, Goh’s life has taken on a different rhythm, giving her the time to explore interests like cooking, baking and gaming.

While her return to the competitive arena came after a six-year break, it felt like a space she understood.

The 38-year-old said: “I didn’t really realise how much I enjoyed the competitive aspect of it until I did my shoot. The adrenaline was there but then also I couldn’t let it overrun because then my hand would shake. It’s about how do I balance that.

“There’s the heart racing and realising my brain is thinking one way and how do I bring it back, all the different things I never really had to place in a sporting context in such a long time.”

At her debut, she finished 20th out of 24 with a score of 523 in the women’s 10m air pistol SH1 event, clearing the qualifying mark for theAsean Para Games in Thailand in January 2026.

She has enjoyed the journey so far, being part of a team again and settling into a structured routine.

Though some aspects feel reminiscent of her past, Goh is mindful that this is still new territory, one she did not expect to revisit after hanging up her goggles.

Goh, a pathway and performance manager at the Singapore Disability Sports Council, said: “It was really nice to be retired after swimming... I really enjoyed the freedom and just not having to think about schedules so much or blocking out a certain period of my week for something.

“But at some point, early to mid-last year, I was starting to feel a bit lost, listless in certain aspects of my life.”

She then came across a local modern pentathlon event in July 2024 that involved running and laser shooting and signed up for it.

Although she was the last to arrive for the shooting leg, she was among the first to leave as she performed creditably, piquing her curiosity whether there was something worth exploring further.

By October, she had begun training, though she was still weighing whether this was the path she wanted to take.

Theresa Goh began to explore the idea of competing in shooting after taking part in a modern pentathlon event in July 2024. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO

The support she received made a big difference. After just a few sessions, her coach Pheong Siew Shya passed her shooting glasses and a pellet box. Daniel Chan, Singapore’s first shooter at the Paralympics, also lent Goh the gun that he used at the 2024 Paris Games.

She said: “It’s been quite good, fun and I find myself always comparing it to swimming like at this point when I started swimming, how did I feel? It’s interesting just being able to play a new game in a different way.”

Pheong, a former national shooter, praised Goh’s determination and discipline, noting that she has improved her understanding of the shooting process but still needs to work on her fundamentals.

Nonetheless, Pheong was impressed by Goh’s performance in Changwon, where she exceeded expectations by registering a personal best – 15 points higher than her previous mark.

Pheong said: “Her mental resilience and determination have inspired the team to believe that anything is possible. It gave the team a shot in the arm.”

Sport has always held a magnetic pull for Goh, who also took up shot put around the same time as shooting and had dabbled in powerlifting during a break from swimming after the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

On what drives her to pursue different sports, she reflected: “The act of learning something, being better at something, and then to the point of potentially mastering it, I like the idea of it.”

She added: “For me, it’s always been about the environment. I’ve always mostly enjoyed (swimming) training because of the people around. I see it now in shooting – it’s hard to say no because the people are so welcoming, I like their company and the environment’s good.”

She has also drawn on lessons from her swimming career, but remains cautious about assuming that the same approach will apply. She just wants to make sure that she enjoys the process.

Having qualified for the Asean Para Games, Goh admits she is still working out what her goals may be, although making a return to the Paralympics has crossed her mind.

“ I bought into the idea that once I was done with my swimming career, that’s it. I’ve achieved what I needed and I can close my career. Many people have that self-placed barrier on themselves like this is as far as I can go. I want to see how far I can go,” she said.

“The main goal, if I can speak it into the world is, I do hope to achieve a similar success to my swimming. To get to the Paralympic Games would be quite nice. If I can, I can. If not, no problem. ”

It seemed almost poetic that after this interview, as Goh posed for photographs beside a mural celebrating Singapore’s athletes outside the High Performance Sport Institute gym, she found herself positioned next to a picture from her swimming days, a bridge between past and present.

With her legacy already woven into the fabric of the nation’s sporting history, she is now writing a new chapter in an already storied career.

Kimberly Kwek joined The Straits Times in 2019 as a sports journalist and has since covered a wide array of sports, including golf and sailing.

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