The Singapore National Olympic Council sent a total of 23 athletes to the Games, 8 men and 15 women, to compete in 9 sports.[1] For the second time in its Olympic history, Singapore was represented by more female than male athletes. Seven Singaporean athletes had competed in Beijing, including swimmer Tao Li, who finished fifth in the women's butterfly event. Among the sports played by the athletes, Singapore also marked its Olympic debut in sprint canoeing and artistic gymnastics.
This was Singapore's most successful Olympics after winning two bronze medals in table tennis. Feng Tianwei, who claimed the bronze for the women's singles event, became the first Singaporean athlete to win an individual medal since 1960.[2] Feng also led her compatriots Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu to take another Olympic bronze medal for Singapore in the women's team event against South Korea.
Singapore has qualified one athlete for the women's events. This is the first time a Singaporean canoeist has qualified for the Olympics.[3] Geraldine managed to qualify for the semi-finals for the K-1 500 m event.[4] She was eventually placed twenty-first out of 24 competitors in the event, beating her own target of bettering at least one other country.[4]
Lim Heem Wei is the only Singaporean gymnast to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics, and the first ever Singaporean gymnast to qualify for an Olympics.[3] She eventually achieved the forty-fifth position in the Women's artistic qualification event.[5]
Singaporean swimmers have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following events (up to a maximum of 2 swimmers in each event at the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT), and 1 at the Olympic Selection Time (OST)):[6][7]
Singaporean swimmers were all coached by Sergio López Miró, a swimmer competing for Spain who won the bronze medal in the men's 200 m breaststroke event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
Singapore has qualified four athletes for singles table tennis events. Based on their world rankings as of 16 May 2011 Gao Ning and Yang Zi have qualified for the men's event; Feng Tianwei and Wang Yuegu have qualified for the women's.[8] In the Southeast Asian Qualification Tournament Singapore won a third spot in the men's (Zhan Jian) and the women's (Li Jiawei),[9] however they can not compete in the singles event due to only a maximum of 2 athletes per gender being allowed, though they will compete in the team event. Singapore Table Tennis Association has set a target of 2 medals in this event, 1 more than what they achieved at the 2008 Summer Olympics.[10]
Li Jiawei, Feng Tianwei and Wang Yuegu's win against South Korea for the women's team Bronze medal match marks the first Olympics in Singapore's history where more than one medal were won consecutively in a single Olympics.[11]
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