A century after Paris 1924, the Olympic Games return to the French capital where Team Singapore are aiming to deliver a vintage performance and masterpiece in the city of art. In the fifth part of ST’s Olympic series, swimmer Letitia Sim breaks down the breaststroke. Letitia Sim will compete in the 100m and 200m breaststroke, 4x100m medley relay at the Paris Olympics.
National swimmer Letitia Sim is a nitpicker. She likes her room clean and neat. In the call room, she is baffled by her competitors’ grunts and shouts – efforts to hype themselves up.
Before she chose to focus full time on swimming at 15, she was a gymnast obsessing over the toe point. As a golfer, she would spend a lot of time correcting her stance. Details appeal to her, and this is why she swims the breaststroke.
The 21-year-old explains: “Most people learn it when they are kids, and it seems easy to understand. But when you break down the different aspects to it, and try to put everything together in a race, it is harder to grasp, because of the coordination that comes with it.” In terms of physique, the 1.
72m Sim feels she is more predisposed to the breaststroke as she can execute big strokes with her arms and powerful kicks with her legs. Swimming all four strokes in the individual medley – in the order of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle – helped her realise her aptitude for breaststroke as she would use it to catch up after falling behind. She soon discovered its intricacie.