Imagine going to school more than 8,000 miles from home, coming to college a quarter before every other first-year student and adjusting to an unfamiliar culture – all at the age of 17.
Senior freestyle swimmer Ting Quah faced all of those challenges during her time as a member of UCLA swim and dive.
Quah hails from Singapore, where she attended The Raffles Girls School. Because of Singapore’s different school schedule, which runs from January to November, coach Cyndi Gallagher decided to bring Quah to UCLA for spring quarter – before Quah’s four years of athletic eligibility even started.
It was a period of adjustment for Quah.
“Singapore is very different. (Quah) would complain about being cold in the spring,” Gallagher said. “Her workload in swimming was tougher than she was used to, and she worked very hard in school, sometimes even too hard. She would get an A-plus, but she would try to get an A-plus-plus-plus. Her work ethic is just that strong.”
The differences in culture were, and still are, immense for Quah. Junior butterfly swimmer Noelle Tarazona cited the fact that some words Quah uses have slightly different meanings in the two nations.
“She uses the word ‘boot’ instead of ‘trunk’ and will often say ‘I will pass that to you later’ rather than ‘I will bring it to you later,’” Tarazona said.
Despite the changes in culture and scenery, Quah had a very successful career at UCLA. She owns two UCLA records and received both first team and honorable mention College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) All-America accolades during her college career.
Not only did Quah succeed personally, she also gained the respect of her teammates through her dedication to the team as a whole. Tarazona credits Quah for being an important influence on her career while they were teammates.
“Ting is a great leader and always has the best interests of the team in mind,” Tarazona said. “She did everything she could for the team and everything she could to better herself.”
Tarazona noted the fact that Quah was always the first at practice and focused on what she needed to get done that day in the pool. Even in her final season, the senior’s work ethic was the same as it was when she was a first-year student trying to make the team.
“She does a lot of things on her own and is completely self-motivated, which is how we want everyone on our team to be,” Gallagher said. “She quietly leads and just gets her work done. People that want her intensity train with her and rise to her level.”
Although her four years of NCAA eligibility are up, Quah still has a career ahead of her in swimming. She continues to train so she can once again represent her home nation of Singapore.
Quah represented her country before at the Southeast Asian Games, the Doha Asian Games, the Pan Pacific Junior championships, the FINA World championships and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Simply participating in these events is not good enough for Quah. Her goal is to “get back to some of these meets and get to the finals.”
She has committed to her national team for at least another year, and has not shut the door on a potential return to the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Despite her wealth of options, Quah doesn’t have a definitive direction for the future of her swimming career.
“I told the (swimming governing body in Singapore) that I would probably swim for a year more. If I am still enjoying it and having fun then I guess I would try for Rio,” Quah said. “I do want to go for one more though.”