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 intricacies, saying: “There’s a perfect window for every movement in the breaststroke.
“If you don’t catch that window where you’re moving forward and pull your feet up at the same time, you lose a lot of speed. If you take so many strokes at the same time, you become slower. If you open your hands too early, or if you pull your feet up too fast, you create more drag.
“This is why breaststroke is the one I have to think about the most because it is less forgiving and there are a lot of things that you can’t get away with compared to the other strokes.” The breaststroke can be broken down into the arm pull, frog kick, and glide – each is a science of its own. For Sim, the beauty of it is “no two breaststrokes look exactly the same”.
In the arm pull, the palms face outwards as the hands form a “Y” shape, before they are swept back in towards the body and shot forward. The frog kick, which comes after and not simultaneously with the arm pull, is the most challenging aspect as it is an unnatural movement that requires flexible hips and ankles. Unlike other strokes, the kick is as important as the arm pull for propulsion.
ST ILLUSTRATION: CHNG CHOON HIONG This is also the area where Sim has put in the most physical work since joining the national team in 2022, overloading her adductor and enduring needling treatment to manage muscle tension for a “more powerful and competitive kick”. Gliding is the effect of the arm pull and frog kick cycle, and a solid streamlined position is vital to maximise the power generated. This is where Sim feels she has the advantage as getting into this position comes naturally to her.
She says: “Breaststroke is the slowest stroke because there’s drag at the lower end when you pull your legs upwards and your knees go forward, and at the top with your chest and body when you sweep upwards. “Every fast breaststroke swimmer always finishes their stroke in a line – from their toes to their fingers, their body will be in a line. This is the fastest point in the breaststroke because it’s when you have the least amount of drag.
” Sometimes less is more, and Sim has a below-average count of 17 strokes going out and 19 coming back in the 100m breaststroke as she glides more, while many swimmers use more than 20. Like a jigsaw, she has put the more refined pieces of her swim together, and the results have been remarkable. In 2023, she broke the national record four times – slashing 1.
5 seconds off her 2021 mark to 1min 6.36sec. Sim is hoping to make it out of the heats in Paris, adding: “Being able to swim in the semis and finals is very different from a regular heat.
You get the little stickers with your last name on it before you walk out, your name gets called – these are little things that make it more exciting and special. “All eyes are on you and you get to showcase what you have worked on and prove to yourself that you belong with the other world-class swimmers.” A post shared by Letitia Sim (@letitia_sim) Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
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