'Motivated' Chen Eyeing Asiad Glory

Kayaker, with silver and bronze in 1st event of 2025, plans to better last Games' result

- Deepanraj Ganesan

Stephenie Chen has five SEA Games gold medals, an Asian Games silver and she became the first Singaporean kayaker to make an Olympic C final in Paris 2024.

She eventually finished seventh out of eight in the women's canoe sprint K1 500m Final C.

Yet, Chen feels that she has not reached her maximum potential.

During her six-week post-Olympic break, she travelled to China, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea, before heading back to Australia in November to resume training.

And the 33-year-old plans to keep going.

She said: "My coach felt like he needed to leave it up to me to decide what my next goal would be and how I wanted to approach it. The reason why I'm continuing is that I feel like I still have room for improvement.

"I want to be able to see where I get or how far I get, racing fearlessly. In this sport, there's always something to improve, whether it's fitness, technique, or my race plan and that constant challenge keeps me showing up and pushing to get better each season."

Despite wanting to race fearlessly, Chen noted that did not mean she was competing with fear previously.