Team Singapore Athlete at Tokyo Olympics 2021: Kiria Tikanah ABDUL RAHMAN

Kiria Tikanah ABDUL RAHMAN (Year 2, Chemistry) represented Singapore in Fencing in the Women’s Individual Épée event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Currently ranked 207th in the world, she had managed to upset a series of higher-ranked opponents at the Olympic qualification event in April. Kiria is the second Singaporean fencer to qualify for the Olympics. 

Kiria started fencing at eight and has been on the national team since 13. She won the women’s epee final at the Southeast Asia Games (SEA Games) 2019, bringing home the first gold medal for Singapore in the event since 1989.

At the Tokyo Olympics, she reached the table-of-32 bout stage. Reflecting on her experience, she said, “Being able to compete with such accomplished athletes was already such an honour. It has surely spurred me on to train even harder so that one day I can hopefully stand on the same podium as them.”

Kiria trains six times a week, she says, “Each day I train about two or three times, so it can be a gym session in the morning and fencing session in the evening. It’s very difficult for me to put aside some extra time to meet my friends outside of school and outside of training.”  

When asked whether it was true that ‘Elite athletes go through brutal mental toil in pursuit of greatness’, she felt heard as if it was something she related to.  

Kiria affirms: “I agree with the statement, I think a lot of times you don’t see results, so you have to keep pushing through the hard times before you actually manage to win a big competition or achieve a good achievement. So it can be very long and it can be very lonely at times, because not a lot of people will understand your struggles, and they may not support you.” 

Kiria discloses insights at the Tokyo Olympics: “I spent a lot of time at the dining hall because they had really good food and it was the only place where we could see other athletes without their masks on. So you can actually recognise famous athletes.”  

Now that the Olympics have ended, Kiria will be shifting her focus to prepare for the upcoming SEA Games and Asian Games.  

Hear more from Kiria in this Ask Me Anything video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbQYuftamJY&t=22s

Story adapted from OSA source article