Dipna Lim-Prasad: Retired National Sprinter Gives Back to Underprivileged and At-Risk Youths

“For six months, I had very serious conversations about retirement with my coach. It was a really scary period in my life, so there was a lot of crying and talking to my sports psychologist before I became comfortable with the idea of such a big change.

I thought the time was right to step away from competitive sprinting and hurdling for a number of reasons. My husband and I have been together for 10 years, and we’ve been talking about having kids for a long time, so that partially contributed to it.

There were also other personal struggles that I kept private. After the 2018 Asian Games, I lost my usual motivation to go into another training camp. Sports is not just about producing results – there’s politics involved – so I had to re-evaluate my situation and felt it was best to retire.

Looking back, I can honestly say that my sporting journey has been a meaningful one. I’m quite content with what I have already achieved. One of my favourite moments is definitely getting silver in the 400-metre event at the 2017 SEA Games.

I enjoyed everything about that race. Obviously there were nerves involved, but it’s really rare for me to feel happy before, during and after a race. I even managed to set a new national record, so that whole experience was a very memorable one.

These days, I’m busy with In My Shoes. It’s a social initiative that collects new and preloved shoes and gives them to underprivileged kids and youths at risk. We used to only collect shoes from national athletes, but now we welcome donations from anyone in Singapore.

I co-founded it with my friend James Walton in 2017 because I personally saw a lot of school kids who didn’t have proper footwear. They’d wear regular school shoes during their co-curricular activities, but that’s not okay in the long run.

Kids are still growing and wearing the wrong kinds of shoes for training can affect the structure of their feet. We don’t want them to suffer premature injuries to the point where they have to eventually give up sports. We want them to enjoy sports safely.

I also learnt that there’s a financial barrier even for something like sports shoes which should be made available to everyone. Through In My Shoes, I hope to remove that barrier and give every kid in Singapore equal opportunity and access to proper footwear.

We’ve given out a few hundred shoes already. There’s always a bit of excitement and nervousness involved because you never know if the kids would like them. Shoes have to look cool and suit your personality, and it’s rewarding when we see them excited and happy.

I named it In My Shoes because one, you’re literally going to be in my shoes. Two, it’s all about sharing stories that came along with the shoes. If I won a gold medal in this pair of shoes, let’s see where they can take you!

One of my favourite stories to share involves a 17-year-old boy. He’s a recipient of our shoes and was selected to be part of the Michael Johnson camp. It’s a sports leadership camp in Dallas and he was the only one from Southeast Asia to get chosen thanks to our initiative.

We presented him with a congratulations care package from Nike because they provide us with free kits. He got free training attire kits, a bag and a pair of shoes on top of ones we already gave him. It’s exciting to see them grow up and go on to do these kind of things.

Yes, it can get challenging because I handle the day-to-day logistics. During the first year especially, my volunteers and I had to do a lot of shoe drives and we’d literally be under the sun for 12 hours, trying to figure out how to store, transport and process these shoes.

The Singaporean in me also feels the weight of societal pressure. I know this isn’t a proper full-time job and that there’s always more that I could do. For example, I’m also serving as a member of the Singapore National Olympic Council Athletes’ Commission (SNOC AC).

But all in all, I’m happy with where I am in life. To a certain extent, I feel like everything is the way it should be right now. You know, that brilliant feeling like everything is finally falling into place? That is very comforting, to have that solace.

Advice for other athletes? To be honest, I did feel very lost when I was retiring. I’ve been running for 17 years – that’s almost half of my life – and being an athlete is forever a part of my identity.  It’s scary when you don’t know the proper way to go about doing it.

I have spoken to Mark Chay (chairman of SNOC AC) about how we should build in the support we provide to retiring athletes – especially during their transition – like a checklist of things an athlete should consider when contemplating retirement.

I want to build on an existing initiative called the Athlete Career Programme which equips athletes with skills that aid their transition to the workforce. I know that building a new career from scratch can be daunting, especially when you’ve been a legit pro in your field for so long.

I want to build on an existing initiative called the Athlete Career Programme which equips athletes with skills that aid their transition to the workforce. I know that building a new career from scratch can be daunting, especially when you’ve been a legit pro in your field for so long.

For me personally, I had to remember why I started doing sports in the first place and whether that still aligns with who I am today. You’ll know when it’s time. Don’t worry so much. If you’re freaking out, call me and we can talk about it together.” – Dipna Lim-Prasad

Interview by: Arman Shah

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Be sure to check out the SNOC AC Athletes Forum that features a whole segment on athlete transitions on 30 March 2019.