Li Jiawei

Li Jiawei is a former national table tennis player. She has represented Singapore thrice at the Olympic Games from 2004 to 2012.

Jiawei moved to Singapore when she was 14 and began her competitive career a year later. Although she is mainly a singles player, she clinched three gold medals in the women’s doubles, mixed doubles and team events at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. 

After returning from the 2004 Athens Olympics, where she narrowly missed out on the bronze medal, she hit her highest world ranking. Jiawei was world No. 3 in December 2005. The next year, she won two gold and two silver medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Jiawei can also claim world champion status, having won the International Table Tennis Federation Pro Tour US Open (2004), Russia Open (2006) and Chinese Taipei Open (2007).

When she went to Beijing for her second Olympics, Jiawei was world No. 6. Although the Singapore flag bearer missed out on an individual bronze, placing fourth again, she helped the women’s team win a silver medal. This was Singapore’s first medal since weightlifter Tan Howe Liang’s medal in 1960.

There was heartbreak for the veteran paddler yet again in London in 2012, when she lost her semi-final match in the women’s singles. There was, however, some consolation at her final Olympic outing in a team bronze.