To be an Olympian is never an easy feat. Aisyah Rafa’ee (or fondly known as Aisyah Rower) has not just able to be in the top game and then retire and venture into helping people with their athletic career as a mental skills coach for athletes. Asking an athlete to retire at the top of her game is never easy for it is like dropping one’s identity which comes later with existential dread and Aisyah explains how she dealt with everything that comes in her way when she announced her decision.

To be a mental wellness coach seems like an easy coach for her as she reveals how she has learnt from her own life and the mental capabilities that she got to be on top of her game and then retire from it while she being on the top. All the challenges that faced both to Singapore athletics and athletics out of Singapore that make us look so similar. After moving out of Singapore, challenges bound to happen. Emotional lessons that she has learnt when moving out of her home and being the representation of her people where she is from.

Representation was never easy; especially if it is under a spotlight like major international games such as Olympics. She reveals the pressure that one athlete has wearing the country flag on their shoulder on top of performing well in their sports when I brought up Joseph Schooling’s situation. She reveals who she has looked up to in during her qualifiers and her prep into getting the representation.

We never knew what happens in one’s life. We were to tell what we want to be when we are 7 and we never have thought her ambition may be. She has reached her ambition and Aisyah reveals her peeves while questions the reasoning behind the whole education system when it comes to physical education in Singapore.

Man getting into Olympics is not easy feat as one may think.