Lo’s Olympic debut today makes all her sacrifices worthwhile.

Sailor had to gain over 10kg and put up with dirty looks to pursue her Olympic dream

MOST teenage girls want to look as thin as the glamorous models that grace glossy magazine covers, and national sailor Lo Man Yi was no different.

In 2004, the then 16-year-old made the switch from the Byte to the Laser Radial class, as the former is not an Olympic event. In order to handle the heavier Laser Radial, the 1.64m-tall sailor had to bulk up from a petite 54kg to reach the optimal weight of 65kg to 70kg so she could handle the boat in high winds.

But she had to endure disapproving stares from other girls.

“For a girl to have to put on weight, when everybodyelse is trying to lose theirs, is a very difficult
thing,” said Lo, who makes her Olympic debut today at 1pm as the Olympic Laser Radial competition begins.

“It was especially difficult for me. As a girl, you want to look good, but I had to eat as many times a day as I could and take weight-gain supplements so I could reach the optimal weight.

“I was doing well in the Byte, but it’s not an Olympic event and I realised my future in it would be limited. I struggled with the Laser Radial at first, but my family was very supportive of me.”

But it was a very different story at Victoria Junior College in 2005 and 2006. Lo had to put up with unkind looks from other girls and scoffs from schoolmates who thought she was wasting time in a sailboat that could’ve been better spent hitting the books. Especially as she was struggling to keep her grades above water.

“Some said ‘why do you still want to sail, what will you gain from it?’ and ‘aren’t studies more important?’,” she recalled.

“I began fearing what would happen to me if I couldn’t get into a university. It was stressful.

“But I love sailing too much, and so the more people challenged me, the more determined I was to prove them wrong and show them I could do well in sailing and studies at the same time.”

And prove them wrong she did.

Lo won the gold medal in the Laser Radial class at the 2005 SEA Games. The following year, she passed her “A” levels and got a place in the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Business Administration.

Today, the 20-year-old makes her Olympic debut. And true to her determined nature, she’s not ruling out a podium finish, even though she’s not generally considered a medal contender.

“In Qingdao, anything can happen, as the conditions are really unpredictable,” said Lo, who has sailed there several times before.

“A medal? Well, nothing is impossible.”

And if she does the “impossible”, Lo might just be the spunky gal on glossy magazine covers that teenage girls want to emulate.