Former Singapore swimming sensation and two-time Olympian David Lim has high hopes for his young charges at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games. (Photo: Singapore Swimming)
Mention the name David Lim in Singapore swimming circles, and the aura of respect is immediately evident. A brilliant swimmer in his prime, David is a two-time Olympian and 19-time SEA Games Gold Medallist. He was also a three-time Sportsman of the Year and received the Public Service Star in 1990 for his athletic achievements. David also won the Singapore Sports Council’s Coach’s Recognition Award for High Performance Coaching in 2006.
As head coach and team manager of the Youth Olympic Games Singapore swim team, Lim spends six days a week and 10 sessions per week with Singapore’s hopefuls.
In a special interview with The Play Times, David remarked that he has never regretted the moment he decided to take up coaching some 20 years back.
“It has been 20 years, since 1991, that I started coaching swimming,” he began.
“The opportunity was presented to me. I was at the crossroads and it was either to carry on swimming or start coaching. I decided to take up the challenge to groom young swimmers. It has been very satisfying since and I have never looked back since, said the 44-year-old.
“The fact that I wanted to help the developing swimmers learn what I had learnt during my competitive swimming in the shortest time possible was also one of the reasons why I started to coach competitively,” he added.
Like all sports, there are many challenges that come with it, and as a coach, David has had his fair share of challenges. What has been the biggest challenge he has faced in his 20-year career as a coach?
“Motivating the swimmers to dare to dream,” he fired off almost instantly.
“Most swimmers limit themselves to what they think they can achieve, but do not dare to think about achieving more.”
With the inaugural Youth Olympic Games less than three months away, David has full confidence in his charges.
“I expect the competition to be very tough as swimming is actively participated by more than 150 countries in the world. The success of the team will also depend largely on the type swimmers sent by the other countries. However, I do expect the swim team to rise to the occasion and perform above their personal bests,” he said.
With swimming one of the most popular past times among Singaporeans, there are bound to be kids that want to emulate their heroes like Patricia Chan, Joscelin Yeo, Ang Peng Siong, even David himself. So what does he have to say to those who aim to be competitive swimmers?
“Start with the proper fundamentals. Learn the proper techniques of all the strokes and very importantly, be in a programme which caters the all round development of a competitive swimmer,” he ended.