Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.
Last year, I came across an article in Rice Media, a news outlet based in Singapore, with the headline “‘I’ll Play Till I Die’: The Rowdy Ah Mas Confronting Mortality Through Water Polo.”
In the article, Michele Pek wrote that her grandmother was one of the first members of the Ah Ma Flippa Ball team, a group of women mostly in their 60s, 70s and 80s who started playing flippa ball — a version of water polo that does not require treading water — in Singapore in 2016. “Ah ma” means grandmother in several Chinese dialects.
It was “the first time I’ve seen an 80-year-old lady dive headfirst for a ball,” Ms. Pek wrote.
I was born and raised in Singapore, one of the world’s most rapidly aging countries. For years, I kept track of the government’s various initiatives to engage older residents. The National Silver Academy, for example, offered courses teaching them how to use TikTok. This month, two “silver generation ambassadors” — volunteers who help Singapore’s government connect with seniors — visited my 83-year-old mother to ask about her chronic diseases and if she had friends. They encouraged her to exercise and told her that she could play Rummy-O with other seniors. And recently, the city-state hosted the World Aging Festival, which featured a cheerleading squad made up of seniors.
I have always been interested in how seniors live. I previously covered demographics in China, where I was based for a decade. There, I wrote about people in their 70s and 80s who went to parks to find love.
When I started covering Southeast Asia in late 2021, I was keen to continue that focus. I am always searching for new ways to tell the story of demographic shifts in the region. I knew that the story of the Ah Ma Flippa Ball team presented an opportunity to highlight Singapore’s dynamic, aging population.
So I contacted the coach, Ting Kum Luen, and asked if I could watch the team play at the Yio Chu Kang Swimming Complex. Mr. Ting told me how skeptical he was when an official from Sport Singapore, a government agency, asked him in 2016 to try to teach flippa ball to seniors.
Since then, he said, he has been astounded by how much stronger the grandmothers who play have become. (Singaporeans over 65 get free access to all public swimming pools and gyms. Mr. Ting coaches them for free.)
I went to watch them play in February. I was drawn to Lee Fong Nam, who was playfully arguing with Mr. Ting. In the water, she was competitive. But when she got out of the pool, she had the complete opposite demeanor. Ms. Lee said that no one in her home had seen the version of her that she showed in the pool.
Like nearly all the women on the team, Ms. Lee said she did not have time to exercise while raising her children. One woman learned to swim at 60. Another, the goalkeeper, said she learned at 71. For many of the women, it was the first time they had ever played a team sport.
After I watched the team play, I joined the women for a meal at a nearby hawker center, one of the several open-air food complexes ubiquitous to Singapore. There I chatted with Koh Nguan Keng, who first started swimming at 60. She had been preparing for a second knee replacement when her neighbor suggested that she start swimming.
Fifteen years later, she is in the pool about five or six days a week and no longer has pain in her legs, she told me.
I knew the article would not work without excellent photos and video. Fortunately, my colleague Chang W. Lee, a photojournalist with a great eye for stories such as this one, visited the pool a month later.
Chang put on a swimsuit and got in the pool. With an underwater video camera, he captured visuals of the players above and below the water. Under the water, you could see their strong legs as they darted after the ball, while above you could see their arms stretched out in the air, ready to pounce.
In one video, Ms. Lee scored a goal. She flashed a thumbs up in the air and sashayed across the pool.
It made me chuckle. I knew it would make others smile, too.
Sui-Lee Wee is the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The Times, overseeing coverage of 11 countries in the region.
The post In Singapore, Grandmothers Dive Into Aging With a Splash appeared first on New York Times.
