Chee Swee Lee

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Chee Swee Lee
Personal information
NationalitySingaporean
Born (1955-01-10) 10 January 1955 (age 69)
Singapore
Sport
Sport Track and field
Event Middle-distance running
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing Flag of Singapore.svg  Singapore
Asian Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 1974 Tehran 400 m
Asian Championships
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 1973 Marikina 800 m
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg1973 Marikina4×400 m
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 1975 Seoul 400 m
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg1975 Seoul4×400 m
Southeast Asian Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 1975 Bangkok 400 m
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg1975 Bangkok800 m
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 1969 Rangoon 400 m
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 1971 Kuala Lumpur 4x400 m
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 1973 Singapore 400 m
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg1973 Singapore800 m
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg1973 Singapore4x400 m
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg1975 Bangkok4x400 m
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg1971 Kuala Lumpur400 m

Chee Swee Lee (born 10 January 1955) is a Singaporean retired middle-distance runner who competed in the women's 800 metres at the 1976 Summer Olympics. She was the first Singaporean woman to clinch a gold in athletics at the Asian Games—achieved at the women's 400 metres in 1974—and remained the only one until Shanti Pereira's victory at the women's 200 metres in 2023.

Contents

Early life

Chee was born on 10 January 1955 in Singapore. The third of eight children, she attended Telok Kerau West Primary School and became its best-performing athletics student in 1966. [1] At 14 years old, while still in secondary school, Chee represented Singapore in the 400m event at the 1969 Southeast Asian Peninsular Games (SEAP Games) in Rangoon, winning the silver medal. [2] At the 1971 SEAP Games in Kuala Lumpur, Chee won the silver in the 4x400m relay and the bronze medal in the 400m event. [3]

Athletics career

At the 1973 SEAP Games in Singapore, Chee won two individual silvers in the 400 m and 800 m, [2] as well as the team silver in the 4x400m relay. [3]

At the 1974 Asian Games, Chee competed in the women's 400 m event and won the gold medal with 55.08 seconds, setting a Games record [4] and Singapore national record for the 400 m, which remained unbroken until August 2017. Chee became the first Singaporean woman to win a gold at the Asian Games. [5] She also won a silver in the women's 4x400 m and bronze in the 4x100 m relays. [2] The same year, Chee was named Sportswoman of the Year in Singapore. At the 1975 SEAP Games, Chee won the 400 m and 800 m events [4] and the silver medal at 4x400 m relay. [3]

In 1976, Chee accepted a track scholarship at the University of Redlands in California. She qualified for the 800 m at the year's Olympics with a time of 2:07.4 minutes, but was unable to complete her heat in Montreal due to an injury to the Achilles tendon of her right leg, sustained during the National Amateur Athletic Union meet. [1] Determined to continue running, Chee underwent surgery and reappeared in the circuit at the 1981 Southeast Asian Games in Manila, but failed to reach the podium in any events. [4]

Chee subsequently enrolled at Mt. San Antonio College, coming in second at its conference championship with a time of 2:11.0 minutes. She then went to California State Polytechnic University, Pomona under an athletic scholarship and graduated with a degree in business administration. In 1990, Chee retired from professional athletics. [1]

Post-athletics life

After retiring from athletics, Chee moved to Diamond Bar, California with her husband Bob Cedillo, [1] before beginning a career as a property agent based in Las Vegas, Nevada. [5] In May 2011, she was presented with a medallion commemorating her participation at the 1976 Olympic Games. The association Olympians Singapore has also officially recognised Chee as the 97th Olympian in the country's history. [1]

Until Shanti Pereira won the women's 200 m in October 2023, [6] Chee was the only Singaporean woman to have finished first at an Asian Games athletics event. Her 1974 gold medal is housed at the Singapore Sports Museum. [7]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Leo Suryadinata, ed. (2012). "Chee Swee Lee". Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary. Vol. 1. ISEAS Publishing. pp. 97–99. ISBN   9789814345224.
  2. 1 2 3 Low, Lin Fhoong (28 March 2014). "A track queen returns, and is blown away". Today.
  3. 1 2 3 "Singapore SEAP/SEA Games History (Athletics Only)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 April 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 "Chee Swee Lee". Singapore Women's Hall of Fame. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  5. 1 2 Kiew, Ian (26 August 2017). "Athletics: Singapore legend Chee Swee Lee wants successor Dipna Lim-Prasad to be an inspiration to others". The Straits Times.
  6. "Asian Games 2023: Shanti Pereira wins women's 200m, seals Singapore's first gold medal in athletics since 1974". South China Morning Post. 2 October 2023.
  7. Brijnath, Rohit (19 September 2023). "A woman with small shoes who left a big footprint". The Straits Times.