OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
The Singaporean has overcome much to get to where she is today.
She first burst into the nation’s consciousness at the 2015 Southeast Asian Games when she took gold in the 200m, clocked a personal best and set a new national record. Her win also ended a 42-year gold medal drought for Singapore in a SEA Games sprint event.
But with it came the enormity of expectations. That coupled with injuries meant that some wrote Pereira off over the next few years.
“Slowly, people just kind of lost faith in me. People have their opinions about my journey, and whatnot. I think, for a while there, I really did let it get to me, which is not ideal,” she said previously.
“There was a lot of self-doubt that kind of grew as the years went by. Just because it was like – again another season I couldn’t get a PB (personal best), and it just continued and continued and continued.”