Loh Kean Yew

Loh Kean Yew (born 26 June 1997) is a Singaporean badminton player.

He is the former men's singles world champion, winning the title at the 2021 BWF World Championships, becoming the first Singaporean to achieve this feat.

Loh's success as a child in Penang state team saw him receive a scholarship from the Singapore Sports School.

Loh Kean Yew was born on 26 June 1997 in Penang, Malaysia, as the youngest son with three elder brothers, to his parents Loh Pin Keat and Grace Gan.

His mother described him as "very cheeky" when he was young and able to talk his way out of trouble.

Loh's elder brother, Kean Hean, is also a member of the Singapore national badminton team.

According to Loh, he began playing badminton at the age of four, at the gate of his house, along with his brothers and his neighbour.

He stopped playing the sport at age seven after being looked down on by his seniors, in contrast to media reports which stated that he had been "bullied" as a child.

However, he resumed playing badminton at age nine.

Within six months, he progressed to join the Penang state team.

Loh briefly trained with the Penang Badminton Association (PBA) until the age of 12, at their badminton academy in Ayer Itam.

According to the president of the PBA, Loh and his third brother Loh Kean Hean were attending training nine times a week at the prompting of their mother, and they were trained by two Chinese coaches, Li Mu and Chao Yue.

In 2007, Loh visited Singapore for the first time, as his brother Kean Hean attended a trial at the Singapore Sports School, with Loh being there to help his brother warm up.

Loh won the 2009 National Junior Grand Prix Finals by defeating Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia in the under-12 final.

Kean Hean moved to Singapore in 2009, joining Montfort Secondary School.

Meanwhile, Loh visited Singapore again in 2009 for his trial with the Singapore Sports School, where he performed well enough to be offered a place in the Singapore Sports School's Badminton Academy.

Loh was also offered a place in Malaysia's Bukit Jalil Sports School but he rejected it for Singapore.

Loh moved to Singapore at the age of 13 to attend the Singapore Sports School's four-year programme from 2010 to 2013, while on a scholarship offered by the school.

With Loh's parents remaining in their family home in George Town, they relied on support in Singapore to look after Loh, stemming from sources such as Loh's maternal uncle, plus an ex-classmate of Loh's father, as well as the family of Kean Hean's doubles partner Terry Hee.

Loh said that his initial reaction was anger, but he had no choice because his mother "already bought the tickets".

He suffered from homesickness for a period but got better when he called his mother and cried to her, letting out the unhappiness.

Loh credited his peers for not judging his accent and allowing him to fit in with them and also credits the school staff for taking care of him.

He had badminton training twice a day at the Singapore Sports School.

From late 2011 onwards, Loh was coached by Kelvin Ho, a former Singapore national badminton player.

After graduating from the Singapore Sports School, Loh continued his education at Republic Polytechnic (RP), studying Sports and Leisure Management.

2012 marked the start of Loh's professional career.

At age 15, Loh played in his first senior tournament at the 2012 Chinese Taipei Open in October.

He participated in two events, the men's singles and the mixed doubles.

In 2013, he participated in eight more tournaments throughout the year, either in the men's singles discipline, doubles, or both.

His best showing was in the singles events where he reached the second round of both the Malaysia Masters and Indonesia Masters.

In 2014, Loh won that year's Singapore International Series tournament, with International Series events being the fourth tier of Badminton World Federation events at the time.

He made his international debut for Singapore at the 2015 SEA Games, becoming a Singaporean citizen that same year.

In 2015, Loh officially became a Singaporean citizen.

Also that year, after Loh had turned 18, he informed his mother that he would drop out of his schooling to become a professional sportsman, as Loh wanted to focus on badminton full-time.

His mother said that the family was "shocked", and recounted telling Loh: "I sent him to Singapore to study, but now he wants to give that up to play badminton?"

However, the family ultimately "trusted" and "supported" Loh because he was "mature", "disciplined and knew what he wanted to do", said his mother.

As such, Loh dropped out of Republic Polytechnic after one year of study.

At the age of 17, Loh (world no. 139) represented Singapore at the 2015 SEA Games in the men's singles event and won a bronze after being defeated by Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif in the semi-final.

He was also in the men's team in 2015, 2017, and 2019, where he won bronzes in all three editions.

He went on to represent Singapore in several international competitions, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.