Once I hated swimming

By Panchamee Hewavissenti

Mayumi Raheem needs no introduction to sports fans, especially swimming fans. She is our hope along with Daniel Lee to win a gold medal for Sri Lanka at the Olympics.

Your full name: Mayumi Amiranthi Raheem

Birthday: 15th September, 1991

School attending: United World College of South East Asia

Were you born in Singapore or in Sri Lanka? Sri Lanka

Is anyone of your family engaged in sports? My dad played rugby for Sri Lanka and my mum was an athlete and netball player. My two sisters, Machiko and Kimiko are also engaged in swimming.

Are your relatives residing in Sri Lanka? They are residing in Colombo and Galle.

At what age did you take to swimming? When I was 3 years old.

What made you to prefer swimming to any other sport? Initially I had no interest in swimming. I used to hate that sport. When my parents forced me to do swimming I swam for safety reasons. I love to play other sports such as netball. Since I have already excelled in swimming I need to go ahead with that.

Who suggested to you that you should excel in swimming? My coaches.

You were originally chosen with Daniel Lee to represent Sri Lanka at the Olympics. But subsequently you were asked to come to Sri Lanka and swim in a trial. Would you like to comment on that? I would comment on it negatively. Because I had just finished a major swimming meet in Singapore, where I performed well, achieving personal best timings in several events.

Thus providing the selectors with tangible evidence that I am fit to represent Sri Lanka at the Olympics. But it did not turn out that way. I was mentally and physically exhausted after the meet, and was not ready for another one. Another thing was that the trials completely disrupted my training schedule.

How often do you practise? I practise everyday except on Sundays.

How do you balance studies with sports? I make a priority list so that everything falls into place. It’s a matter of time management. While practising I do all my school work as well. It’s more difficult this time because I had to prefer for exams while practising. There were days when I would go for training in the morning, and still sit for my exam a few hours later. Regardless of difficulty I had to do it.

Where do you stay in Singapore? In the East

Who are your local and foreign coaches? In Sri Lanka, I started swimming with uncle Faizal and after that under Uncle Sumith. After I moved to Singapore, I have been under several coaches, both Chinese and Caucasian. However, there are a few I must mention, who extended great assistance.

Jaan is one of my favourite coaches. He not only brought me down from a 2.48 200 Breaststroker, to a 2.40 200 Breaststroker, but he also taught me a lot about swimming in general.

He is not in Singapore now. I miss him a lot. But he keeps in touch with me from Australia. During Jaan’s absence, I went back to training with my old coach, David Lim, a multiple SEA GAMES gold medallist who coached me for a short period when I was about 9 years.

He has always welcomed me back to his club with open arms, and has put his best effort into making me a better swimmer. Later I was invited to join the Centre of Excellence, where the national swimmers of Singapore train in one squad.

So I joined their training programme which was led by Jack Simon, who had coincidentally coached me before at a swimming camp that was held in Bangkok in 2005. Jack really gave me that extra back-up I needed to get me up there, and I am ever so grateful to him.

Frank, another coach of mine from Australia also helped a lot with my training by encouraging me to keep going, and trained me a bit as well. Unfortunately, Jack had to leave as well, and so now I am back with David Lim, and as I said before, he was ever so nice, and welcomed me without hesitation. So I now train under David Lim and Gary Tan, who is another great swimmer.

How long would you like to continue swimming? At the moment, I am not quite sure I know the answer to that question.

What are your ambitions in life other than swimming? I would like to work in the medical field like my Aunt, and several cousins. For any sportsperson, taking part at the Olympics is the greatest achievement. Comment on this. Of course. It is every elite athlete’s ultimate goal.

It is an indescribable honour to be able to represent your motherland at any international meet, let alone the Olympics! However, I must say that although I know it is great to just participate, but I would have felt more proud to go to Beijing if I had actually made the B qualifying time.