Loh Kean Yew: I want to do better for the sake of my wife and my family

SINGAPORE: Former badminton world champion Loh Kean Yew opened up about his marriage, family, and desires for the future in an interview with olympics.com published earlier this week.

It’s one of the first—if not the first—times Loh has spoken up about his marriage, which occurred early in 2023. The athlete, however, only posted about his relationship on social media on Dec 24, 2023, a full year after the two had gotten engaged.

According to another Instagram post a day later, Loh wrote that he and his wife would be “Celebrating our ROM Anniversary in about 2 months 😛❤️,” which puts it at around February or March 2023 and is far away from public scrutiny.

Read related: Loh Kean Yew reveals he married his mystery girlfriend early this year

In his latest interview, he opened up about married life, although his wife’s identity is still under wraps. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that his sense of commitment and responsibility has grown as a married man.

“I want to do better for the sake of my wife and my family,” olympics.com quotes him as saying in a March 11 piece.

Loh always wants to do well in his matches, but marriage has added a new dimension to his playing.

“At the back of the mind now, I’m not single anymore: I have a family; I need to support my family, et cetera,” he said, adding that “from within” he has been “getting hungrier” to excel at his sport.

After having won the world championship for men’s singles at the 2021 BWF World Championships in Huelva, Spain, Loh has yet to come out on top once more, though he bagged the silver at the Asian Championships in Dubai last year as well as at the Thailand Masters last month.

Read also: Title drought continues for Loh Kean Yew after coming in 2nd at Thailand Masters

From a career-high of being ranked third in the world, Loh is currently ranked 12th. The article notes that the athlete has had his share of trolls and naysayers, but the athlete does not give them attention.

“People can say whatever they want and it’s not going to be possible to actually cancel out their noise. So I’m just trying to focus on myself and I just do what I do every day, and I just keep trying to be better and keep improving myself,” he told olympics.com.

At this point, Loh is focused on making it into the Paris Olympics this summer, where the top 14 badminton players will compete.

The national athlete expressed optimism, saying, “I’m actually quite looking forward to experiencing it, because in Tokyo, I’d finally made it to the Olympics but everything was so different. Even on court when we played, it was silent. So I hope this time will be a good one.” /TISG