A car accident in 2009 broke both her legs, but Ling Er defied doctors and launched a spectacular comeback within a year. “Three weeks before the 70.3 World Championship, I got into a car accident. For eight months, I was confined to a wheelchair, walker and crutches. I spent every single day planning my comeback,” she recalls. “Four months into my rehabilitation, I started swimming again. Another four months later, my bones were 30 per cent healed. Once I was discharged, I joined the Philippines 70.3, which I spent another four months training for. I emerged as the winner of my age group with a time of five hours and 40 minutes.”

As the first female Singaporean to ever qualify twice for the prestigious Kona Hawaii Ironman World Championships, Ling Er completed her race in Hawaii this October – and reached another milestone by making it back as the fastest Singaporean in her age group. “I almost lost everything in that accident… I don’t want to look back when I’m in my 30s and wonder what I could have accomplished in my 20s,” says the winner of the 2015 Great Women Of Our Time Awards, Health, Sports & Wellness category, who is paving the way forward for other women triathletes here with her achievements that say “nothing is impossible”. A firm believer in giving back to society, Ling Er also races for Operation Smile Singapore to raise awareness on the incredible work done by the non-profit charity organisation to children who are born with facial formalities.

Official website

A car accident in 2009 broke both her legs, but Ling Er defied doctors and launched a spectacular comeback within a year. “Three weeks before the 70.3 World Championship, I got into a car accident. For eight months, I was confined to a wheelchair, walker and crutches. I spent every single day planning my comeback,” she recalls. “Four months into my rehabilitation, I started swimming again. Another four months later, my bones were 30 per cent healed. Once I was discharged, I joined the Philippines 70.3, which I spent another four months training for. I emerged as the winner of my age group with a time of five hours and 40 minutes.”

As the first female Singaporean to ever qualify twice for the prestigious Kona Hawaii Ironman World Championships, Ling Er completed her race in Hawaii this October – and reached another milestone by making it back as the fastest Singaporean in her age group. “I almost lost everything in that accident… I don’t want to look back when I’m in my 30s and wonder what I could have accomplished in my 20s,” says the winner of the 2015 Great Women Of Our Time Awards, Health, Sports & Wellness category, who is paving the way forward for other women triathletes here with her achievements that say “nothing is impossible”. A firm believer in giving back to society, Ling Er also races for Operation Smile Singapore to raise awareness on the incredible work done by the non-profit charity organisation to children who are born with facial formalities.

Official website