Singapore Swimming National Training Center squad swimmer, Roanne Ho is on the mend, but with a change of plans, according to a report in The New Paper.
Ho, the nation of Singapore’s 50m breaststroke National Record Holder, suffered a collapsed lung in January of this year, which resulted in emergency surgery and subsequent hospital stay. At the time, Ho said of her diagnosis, “When the X-ray showed that my lung had collapsed, my doctor told me it was life-threatening and I could have died if I delayed treatment. I feel lucky just to be alive, and for now the priority is to get better.”
The young athlete is now one month removed from having been discharged from the hospital and has already been back in the pool approximately 2 weeks. However, doctors have advised against the 23-year-old competing at the 47th Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships (SNAG), slated for March 16th-20th.
Ho’s absence at the meet holds special significance, as the competition serves as the final opportunity for Singaporean swimmers to clock Olympic qualifying times. Some even speculated the national champion may retire as a result, but Ho confirmed this is not the case.
“I’m quite disappointed that the Olympic dream is over, but I believe everything happens for a reason.” Ho continued, “I think I am now targeting the 2017 SEA Games.”
Trying to stay positive, Ho said, “If I can’t swim at the SNAG, the next meet will be in June [Singapore National Championships scheduled for June 24th-26th) and I will have longer preparation time for that and to focus on my weaker points. If I manage that and I do well in June, I can build up for the SEA Games and then in 2018, there’s the Asian Games, so I might hang on for a bit more.”
“I’m just going to take it one step at a time, I don’t know what’s going to happen”, said Ho.
She’s certainly focusing on the fact that she is on the right track to getting healthy, however, saying, “Obviously, health is always the most important thing. It doesn’t matter how well you plan what you want to do or achieve, if your health isn’t good, then it’s just going to be the in way of everything.”
Singaporean National Head Coach Sergio Lopez states that, “If you look at Roanne, I think she’s happy. She understands what happened and I think it’s given her perspective in life. I thought she was going to retire after this Olympic year, but now I think she’s looking at even the Asian Games.”
Lopez also said, “Of course, I’m not happy such a thing has happened to her, but you always have to look at the positives, and I think more positive has happened than negative.”