Yeo Jia Min has become the first Singaporean badminton player to advance to the knockout stages at the Olympic Games since 2012, after she beat World Number 93 Kate Foo Kune from Mauritius on Tuesday (July 30).

It is a significant milestone for the World Number 20, who was eliminated in the group stages at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics – her Olympic debut – after losing to South Korea’s Kim Ga-eun.

In an interview following the 2021 defeat, she told Thir.st that her relationship with God helped her to cope with the disappointing loss.

“As I get more invested in this sport that I love, I also know that sport is tough,” she said.

“It doesn’t always promise you the same returns of what you sacrifice or the work that you put in. But it does make us a stronger person and give us a stronger faith in God if we continue to invite Him into our lives.”

Vocal about her faith

Jia Min, 25, who often sports a necklace with a cross at competitions, is not one to shy away from speaking about her faith.

She has shared about how God has been real in her life and sport in two interviews with Thir.st – one following the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and the other after the 2023 Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia – as well as a 2022 interview with Kallos, a Christian magazine.

She is also open about her identity as a Christian on her Instagram profile, in which she declares “Jesus is King”.

The member of Athletes in Action SG, which brings Christian ministry into the world of sports, also mentions God in her social media posts.

For example, after her first Badminton World Federation World Tour Super 750 semi-final appearance at the India Open in January, she wrote in a post: “Every moment leading up has been fuelled with support from many people around me as well as strength from God. Really grateful for all I’ve received.”

In her interview with Kallos, she explained why she talks openly about her faith online: “I just want to share about how God helps me.”

A mother’s nurturing

Jia Min’s relationship with God was a result of her own mother’s faith, she told Kallos.

When she was young, her mum would go into her room at night and share about Jesus. However, Jia Min only developed a personal relationship with Him when she started going to church at 15.

“From my struggles in losses, injuries, missed expectations, or difficulties in training, my mum taught me how to lean on God, trust Him and start having a relationship with Him. I started to learn more about Him and how to live life with Him every day, not just on Sundays,” she said.

Since then, she has learnt to invite God into all aspects of her life and makes it a point to go to Him for wisdom whenever she faces any problems.

“You won’t know how God works in your life until you constantly make the effort to go to Him. He’s not someone far away. Learning how to have a friend in Jesus during the good and bad times shapes the way I think, such as being positive and faithful during struggles,” she said.

In her 2023 interview with Thir.st, Jia Min shared that even amid her packed training schedule, she makes time to draw “peace, strength, faith and purpose from God again and again”.

“It’s my relationship with God that deepens whenever I choose to let go of fear, of doubts and of any negativity that comes to my mind,” she said.

When discouraging thoughts come to her, she turns her mind to prayer and worship songs, “choosing to listen to that small voice that tells me to focus on Him”, she added.

She also encouraged fellow believers to use their God-given talents to serve Him instead of themselves: “I believe that our talent is God’s gift to us, and what we do with it is our gift to God.”

“We are worth much more as a child of God”

On August 1, Jia Min will face Japan’s World Number 10 Aya Ohori, an opponent she has tried and failed to beat three times, in hopes for a place in the quarter-finals at the Paris Olympics.

Win or lose, she will remain confident in her primary identity as a child of God, as she has said in previous interviews.

“I truly believe that our worth is not in our achievements and medals, but we are worth much more as a child of God. It gives us freedom to enjoy the process and to enjoy what we do because we do it for God,” she said in her 2021 interview with Thir.st.

She reiterated her stance the following year in her interview with Kallos: “Valuing God more than my sports eliminates my burdens as well. Of course, I work hard, as God wants us to make full use of our gifts and time.

“But sports isn’t my everything or my identity. Knowing that God is in control of everything helps me embrace difficult or unexpected events.”

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