TOYP Singapore 2019

Chelsea Ann Sim Shu Zhen

Honouree · Personal Accomplishment

Year

2019

Biography

Chelsea Ann Sim Shu Zhen is a Singaporean national taekwondo athlete, coach, and entrepreneur who represented Singapore in the Poomsae discipline from 2009 to 2020. Born with two congenital heart conditions that put her at risk of heart failure, she defied medical odds by picking up taekwondo at age 11 and joining the national team just three years later — going on to become arguably the best poomsae performer in Singapore’s history.

She holds a degree from Singapore Management University (SMU), and during her athletic career balanced full-time employment as a Clients and Markets Executive at Deloitte, where the firm supported her by offering flexible work arrangements and a sabbatical for full-time training ahead of the 2019 SEA Games. Today, she serves as a taekwondo coach and instructor at Athletic United Taekwondo, where she is the only SEA Games Gold Medallist on staff, and continues to grow the sport at the grassroots level in Singapore.

She was also selected as a Barbie Role Model by American brand Mattel in 2020 as part of the Barbie You Can Be An Athlete campaign, alongside two other Singaporean national athletes, recognising her as an inspiration to young girls.

Achievements

Chelsea’s crowning achievement came at the 2015 SEA Games on home soil, where she won Singapore’s first-ever SEA Games Poomsae Gold Medal — ending a 16-year gold drought for taekwondo in Singapore and putting the country back on the world map for the sport.

Earlier, she had won a Silver Medal at the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar in the Poomsae Female Individual event and a Gold and Bronze at the 3rd Commonwealth Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Chennai (2011), representing Singapore with distinction.

She was a back-to-back National Champion across all individual events at the National A Division Championships, Nanyang Technological University Open Championships, and National Poomsae Championships in 2012 and 2013, and represented Singapore at the 11th ASEAN Taekwondo Championships 2013 where she emerged champion despite being the youngest competitor in her category.

Her achievements were recognised with the prestigious National Colours Award and the EAGLES Award in both 2012 and 2013, the SOF-Peter Lim Scholarship awarded by the Singapore Olympic Foundation, and the Professor Tan Teck Meng Sports Scholarship. She was further honoured as the Meridian Junior College Sportswoman of the Year (2014) and was featured in The Straits Times Generation Grit series, which spotlights Singaporeans who have shown exceptional perseverance and resilience.

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