TEAM Fiji’s youngest representative to the 2016 Summer Olympics, Sally Yee, hopes the experience will help her improve her performance in the sport.
The 16-year-old table tennis rep left the country yesterday with the last batch of Team Fiji athletes who will be competing in Rio.
Yee said although her family wasn’t at the airport to see her off, she regarded them as her greatest supporters.
“It wasn’t easy getting here,” she said.
“I had to struggle, my parents had to struggle and there have been a lot of sacrifices along the way. At this age having to juggle both school work and training sometimes it is really stressful, but I tried to overcome them and kept on going.
“For a lot of the competitions, we had to pay our own airfares and my sister and my parents are travelling as well and sometimes they have to get loans and I know it hasn’t been easy for them to get money to finance our dreams,” she said.
Yee started playing table tennis when she was nine years old. In six years, she has worked her way to competing in the Summer Olympics.
“I’m excited and nervous at the same time. It’s overwhelming and I think I will be learning a lot. I hope to do my best and learn as much as I can from the top players from the world,” she said.
