Maybe it’s the Alysa Liu effect, but there’s a new generation of athletes who are approaching competition with a fresh, albeit polarising, perspective: to not rely on external validation (even if it’s an Olympic gold medal) and instead prioritise joy and passion. When Liu won the 2026 Winter Olympics gold medal in figure skating, her unique competition mindset ignited one question across the world: have we been undermining the value of play?

Echoes of this global phenomenon seem to have trickled down into Singapore’s sporting scene. “The first thing I want to say is that diving isn’t something that I want to pursue 100%, like it’s my full-time career,” says 22-year-old Singapore national diver Avvir Tham.

Sweater, jeans, Fendi; Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph, Audemars Piguet

Tham made his competitive debut at 17, winning silver at the 2022 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. Three years later, he made history by winning Singapore’s first diving gold in 60 years at the 2025 SEA Games. For someone whose professional career is already pretty decorated, diving is simply something he loves right now, and there’s a lot more to life than the sport he’s dedicated all his time to since he was nine.

It’s a pretty unique perspective, especially when — for most people — the perfect career is one where skills and interests overlap. The natural assumption is that passion should come easily if you have skill and talent, right? So wouldn’t a lifelong passion naturally end in a lifelong career, too? In a very Liu-esque breakdown, Tham doesn’t quite see it that way.

“I may be a pro — I guess you can put it that way — but I think that it’s not a job; there’s a difference,” he says when I point this out. “Maybe it can be my athletic career, but it wouldn’t be my career, I would say. It’s just something that I really love a lot, and I plan to do it for a long time until I’m 32 years old, and try to compete and represent Singapore in as many Olympic Games as I can.”

Jeans, Fendi; Royal Oak Offshore Diver, Audemars Piguet; Tank top, Stylist’s own

In essence, diving is more of a personal passion than Tham’s entire identity. And why should it be when he’s only 22 years old, with a whole life ahead of him? Yet, one can’t help but wonder whether this approach can work for everyone. Athletes like figure skater Alysa Liu and freestyle skier Eileen Gu were child prodigies. In the same vein, Tham has been diving almost his entire life. It all seems to come so easily for someone with the talent and means.

After all, there’s a lot more that goes into an athlete than finding a talented person and sending them out to compete. It takes hours of training, up to eight hours a day when Tham was preparing for the 2024 Olympics, not to mention the financial cost of sessions, gear, travel, and the like. Yet, Tham says this isn’t the full picture.

Shirt, jeans, Fendi; Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph, Audemars Piguet

“Honestly, I don’t really see what’s so good in reality,” he shares candidly when I ask him what he thinks about the very Singaporean critique rising Singaporean athletes face: that success wouldn’t have found them without having some sort of privileges. “I think a lot of people glamorise the lifestyle — that we get to compete and everything, but I think that’s not really a privilege. That’s something you get for spending hours training every single day, so it’s give and take. It’s not just that we get to go overseas to have fun and all; we have to put in so much effort.”

In many ways, he’s right. An athlete first needs to prove they’re worth the training and access to resources before they become a world-class talent. It’s simply the journey an athlete would have to take. “It’s like eating dinner, something you do almost every single day, and it’s been my life for more than a decade already,” he says. Tham eats, sleeps, trains, competes, and in between it all, he serves his National Service, occasionally hangs out with friends, and recently, models part-time.

Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph, Audemars Piguet; Tank top, jeans, Stylist’s own

“At first, it was a mess,” he says when I ask how he juggles so many things at once. “It was so hard for me to juggle everything, and the people I was working with don’t really understand that I have [other commitments] because it’s not their problem to understand, you know? You’re here to dive, and they only care about that. They don’t care that you have National Service, or whatever. You have to find ways to prioritise.”

“My idol is Eileen Gu,” he adds, “I also wondered how it’s possible that she can do so many things — and it’s about prioritising.” Like Tham, Gu is a professional athlete, student, and model. Among other things, Gu has talked extensively about the importance of direction and time management in juggling all her commitments and interests, and Tham has taken a page from her book. “For example, when I have a very big competition, I block everything else out and focus solely on diving,” he says, “there’s this thing my tuition teacher said to me when I was much younger, ‘It’s not that you don’t have time, you [have to] make time for yourself to be able to accomplish things.’”

Tracksuit, Hermès; Royal Oak Offshore Selfwinding Chronograph, Audemars Piguet

Nonetheless, the point of sports competitions is to decide who is the most skilled or successful among a pool of fellow competitors. When the goal is no longer to win over others or amass accolades, what would an athlete competing at such a high level use to define this elusive concept of ‘success’?

Tham is still trying to figure this out himself. Until then, his answer is: “I think a lot of people see [success] as a medal, because winning that gold medal could symbolise a lot of things. When I won gold at the SEA Games, I [thought I’d] feel accomplished… like I’ve done a big thing. But in actuality, I think success doesn’t come from winning a medal alone. Otherwise, you always want more — you’ll want to win the Asian Games after the SEA Games, and after that, you’ll want to compete at the Olympics. I think success is about doing what you love. So it’s about enjoying the sport and doing what you love. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many medals you win if you don’t love it. There are many athletes overseas competing professionally who no longer enjoy [the sport] anymore, but they have to do it because they’re winning so many medals. But I don’t think there’s a point if you don’t love what you do in the end.”

Royal Oak Offshore Diver, Audemars Piguet

So, beyond the accolades and history-making, what would a young athlete and person in Singapore want to be known for? “I think that I don’t want to just be known for my diving because there’s a lot more to me than that. I want to be known for my personality — for me as a person, for everything I am. Diving is just something that will get me out there.”

Photography Zoel Low 
Styling Manfred Lu
Story Lucy Lauron 
Grooming & Hair Sha Shamsi 

Once you are done with this story, click here to catch up with our October 2026 issue.