SINGAPORE – Fresh off becoming a world junior champion for the first time in 2024, Singaporean wushu exponent Ng Zhe Nin had much to ponder when her coach asked if she wanted to continue with the sport and what her motivation was.

But the answer soon became clear to the teenager. She was eager to compete on bigger stages, and set her sights set on the 2026 Youth Olympic Games (YOG), where the Chinese martial art was making its debut as a medal sport at the quadrennial event.

Fast-forward slightly over 24 months, and not only did Zhe Nin make it to the YOG, she found her way to the top of the podium at the Dakar Games, clinching gold in the women’s taijiquan combined final on Nov 3.

At the Dakar Expo Center in Senegal, the 16-year-old finished with a combined score of 18.713 points, ahead of Chinese Taipei’s Chu Yu-en (18.499) and Germany’s Mia Zhou (18.482).

Said Zhe Nin : “This has been one of my goals... especially after the world junior (title) in 2024. 

“I wanted to reach a bigger stage. And this is the Olympics.”

This caps an impressive maiden YOG campaign for Zhe Nin, who earned herself one of the eight berths in the final by topping the women’s taijiquan combined standings with a score of 18.653 after both preliminary routines.

The Nanyang Girls’ High School student looked primed to take gold after registering 9.353 points to place first in the morning’s taijishan final on Nov 3, but she also had to manage the pressure that came with being in the lead, knowing that a single mistake could be costly.

But she gave nothing away, looking composed as she stepped onto the mat for the taijiquan final later in the day and scored 9.360 points.

As her scores came up on the screen and confirmed her as champion, a wave of relief washed over the Secondary 4 student, who was the last athlete to perform her routine in the taijiquan final.

“There were a lot of tiring training sessions (where) I trained twice a day, which is not what I typically do, and I spent a whole day just at the training centre sleeping and eating there,” she said.

“I’m very happy and proud, I’m definitely very relieved. There were a lot of ups and downs and a lot of hours training tirelessly but a lot of people supported me throughout this journey and I’m very grateful for every one of them.”

While this was her YOG debut, Zhe Nin, who picked up the sport at the age of 10, is no stranger to the international stage.

At 2026’s edition of the World Junior Wushu Championships in Tianjin, China, she bagged golds in the girls’ youth taijiquan and taijijian, as well as the girls’ youth taijishan silver, adding to the gold and silver she won two years before that in Brunei.

This marks the first time that wushu has been included in an Olympic programme as a medal sport, after previously appearing as a demonstration sport at the 2014 Nanjing YOG.

Only the taolu discipline in which athletes perform choreographed routines that a team of judges score was contested this time.

The other main discipline is sanda, a full-contact combat sport where competitors fight against each other.

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo hailed Zhe Nin for her achievement, hailing her “outstanding performance” in a Facebook post.

Also praising Zhe Nin’s achievement was Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

In a Facebook post highlighting the accomplishments of several Singaporeans who have made their mark on the world stage, Mr Lee wrote: “This is Singapore’s first medal at these Games, and a historic achievement as wushu makes its debut as a medal sport at the YOG.”

Zhe Nin’s gold in Senegal is the 13th medal – and fourth gold – won by a Singaporean athlete across four editions of the quadrennial event.

Sailors Bernie Chin and Samantha Yom, won the boys’ and girls’ one person dinghy, respectively, at the 2014 Games in Nanjing. And in 2018, artistic gymnast Tamara Ong won a multi-discipline team event gold in Buenos Aires, Argentina, though this did not count towards Singapore’s medal tally at the quadrennial event as she won as part of a 13-athlete, multinational squad.

Any medals won by combined teams made up from athletes from different countries are credited to the mixed national Olympic committee in the medal table.

At the inaugural YOG held in Singapore in 2010, the nation’s athletes won two silvers (swimming, table tennis) and five bronzes (taekwondo, archery, sailing, football), before the two golds (sailing) and two silvers (shooting) at the next edition in 2014.

These include the mixed team bronze won by archer Abdul Dayyan Jaffar and Turkey’s Begunhan Unsal in 2010 and shooter Teh Xiu Yi’s mixed team 10m air pistol silver with Egypt’s Ahmed Mohamed four years later.

The Oct 31-Nov 13 Dakar Games were initially supposed to take place in 2022, but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the ongoing Games, Singapore are represented by 14 athletes competing in archery, athletics, badminton, 3x3 basketball, fencing, artistic gymnastics, sailing, table tennis and wushu.