Chee Swee Lee
Singaporean middle-distance runner
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Chee Swee Lee (born 10 January 1955) is a Singaporean retired middle-distance runner who competed in the women's 800 metres at the 1976 Summer Olympics. She was the first Singaporean woman to clinch a gold in athletics at the Asian Games—achieved at the women's 400 metres in 1974—and remained the only one until Shanti Pereira's victory at the women's 200 metres in 2023.
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| Nationality | Singaporean | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 10 January 1955 Singapore | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sport | Track and field | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | Middle-distance running | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Early life
Chee was born on 10 January 1955 in Singapore. The third of eight children, she attended Telok Kerau West Primary School and became its best-performing athletics student in 1966.[1] At 14 years old, while still in secondary school, Chee represented Singapore in the 400m event at the 1969 Southeast Asian Peninsular Games (SEAP Games) in Rangoon, winning the silver medal.[2] At the 1971 SEAP Games in Kuala Lumpur, Chee won the silver in the 4x400m relay and the bronze medal in the 400m event.[3]
Athletics career
At the 1973 SEAP Games in Singapore, Chee won two individual silvers in the 400 m and 800 m,[2] as well as the team silver in the 4x400m relay.[3]
At the 1974 Asian Games, Chee competed in the women's 400 m event and won the gold medal with 55.08 seconds, setting a Games record[4] and Singapore national record for the 400 m, which remained unbroken until August 2017. Chee became the first Singaporean woman to win a gold at the Asian Games.[5] She also won a silver in the women's 4x400 m and bronze in the 4x100 m relays.[2] The same year, Chee was named Sportswoman of the Year in Singapore. At the 1975 SEAP Games, Chee won the 400 m and 800 m events[4] and the silver medal at 4x400 m relay.[3]
In 1976, Chee accepted a track scholarship at the University of Redlands in California. She qualified for the 800 m at the year's Olympics with a time of 2:07.4 minutes, but was unable to complete her heat in Montreal due to an injury to the Achilles tendon of her right leg, sustained during the National Amateur Athletic Union meet.[1] Determined to continue running, Chee underwent surgery and reappeared in the circuit at the 1981 Southeast Asian Games in Manila, but failed to reach the podium in any events.[4]
Chee subsequently enrolled at Mt. San Antonio College, coming in second at its conference championship with a time of 2:11.0 minutes. She then went to California State Polytechnic University, Pomona under an athletic scholarship and graduated with a degree in business administration. In 1990, Chee retired from professional athletics.[1]
Post-athletics life
After retiring from athletics, Chee moved to Diamond Bar, California with her husband Bob Cedillo,[1] before beginning a career as a property agent based in Las Vegas, Nevada.[5] In May 2011, she was presented with a medallion commemorating her participation at the 1976 Olympic Games. The association Olympians Singapore has also officially recognised Chee as the 97th Olympian in the country's history.[1]
Until Shanti Pereira won the women's 200 m in October 2023,[6] Chee was the only Singaporean woman to have finished first at an Asian Games athletics event. Her 1974 gold medal is housed at the Singapore Sports Museum.[7]
