Mermaid Siblings

Submitted by Niklas on Sat, 31/12/2011 - 12:02am

SWIMMING STARS: Both are bent on competing in the London Olympics

THE story of how Zyanne Lee, 22, got her first car, a seventh generation Honda Civic, reads like a Disney script.

The petrol chemistry student, who is part of the synchronised swimming team that had garnered three gold medals in the team events at the 2011 SEA Games in Palembang, had just finished a three-month stint at a training camp in China last year in preparation for the Asia Commonwealth Games.

Coincidentally, her homecoming also fell on the same date as her birthday.

To her surprise and joy, her mum, Goh Bee Yuen, 47, greeted her with a set of car keys when she reached home.

“I was wowed when mum said, ‘This is yours. Now go and take a drive in it’,” recalls Zyanne.

Zyanne is now using the Honda to commute between her home in Cheras, classes at University Pertanian Malaysia and the aquatic centre in Bukit Jalil.

Unfortunately, the star in this story is not the Honda with its sporty lines and robust performance but Zylane, 19, the national mermaid’s younger sibling, who despite the threat of total paralysis after sustaining a neck injury had continued to compete.

Recounts Zyanne, during a training session on Deepavali day this year, Zylane was kicked in the neck while rehearsing for a platform routine. This is an eight-woman effort which requires six girls to form a base for a swimmer who will lie flat on their outstretched hands to form a platform. As the girls emerged, the ‘platform’ who was supposed to sit up and strike a pose accidently whacked Zylane’s neck with her heel.

“The first thing I saw was stars. The pain would come a few seconds later,” recalls Zylane.

Dazed and sore, Zylane took a week’s break from training but on the first day she went back into the water, she got kicked again by the same swimmer! This time, however, she didn’t let it interrupt the routine.

“I thought that if this can happen again, it might happen during the competition and I can’t very well stop in mid routine then,” says Zylane.

But the persisting pain prompted medical attention and the result from an MRI scan revealed that three of her vertebras were out of alignment and were close to touching the spinal chord.

“The doctor and chiropractor advised me against competing but after spending 10 years training for the SEA Games, I was not about to give up so easily. In all this time, my sister and mother never told me to stop. They made clear if the injury worsened, I might be totally paralysed but the decision to compete was entirely left to me,” recalls Zylane.

Of her feelings towards the swimmer who had nearly jeopardised her dream of representing her country, Zylane reveals that they have already made peace.

“With professional athletes, there is no room for resentment or negative thoughts because in the first place, the injuries were not inflicted intentionally. We are linked together by a common objective and that is to do the country proud. I am not saying that the team is free of conflicts but we do not take it into the pool. That is the beauty of sportsmanship. You learn how to put aside differences so that you can focus on achievements,” says Zylane.

She is currently doing a matriculation course at the sports school in Bukit Jalil and drives her father’s Suzuki Vitara when she goes home during the weekends.

Now that Zylane’s ordeal is over, the pressure has shifted to Zyanne. She will be making an attempt to qualify for the Olympics as a duet in London this April.

“The coach has said that we should not put our hopes up too high but having been selected for the qualifying, we are going to make the best of this chance. At the moment we are ranked among the top 10 in Asia and to make it to the Olympics, we will have to be among the top three. So, fingers crossed,” says Zyanne.


. Readers are welcome to send words of encouragement to the girls in the synchronised swimming team atzynlee01@hotmail.com.