Terry Hee Yong Kai OLY (; born 6 July 1995) is a Singaporean

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

player. In mixed doubles with

Jessica Tan Jessica Tan Soon Neo (; born 28 May 1966) is a Singaporean politician who has been serving as Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore since 2020. A member of the People's Action Party (PAP), she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) re ...

, Hee won his first World Tour title at the 2022 India Open. Hee together with Jessica Tan also won the gold medal in the mixed doubles event at the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England betw ...

, a first for Singapore in that discipline at the Games. Hee and his wife, Jessica Tan, were nominated for the Straits Times Singaporean of the Year Award 2022. Terry Hee and Jessica Tan are Singapore's first local-born mixed doubles duo to qualify for the Olympics, and made their debut at the Paris Olympics 2024.

Early life

Hee was born in Singapore and enrolled in the

Singapore Sports School Singapore Sports School (SSP) is a specialised Independent school, independent boarding school under the purview of Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth of the Government of Singapore that offers an integrated sports and academic programme to ...

on a scholarship when he was 13. He began playing badminton professionally for Singapore in 2014, after going through the youth system at the

(SBA)'s badminton academy.

Career

2014–2018: Early senior career

Hee won the mixed team bronze medal at the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014 (; ), were an international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Commonwealth Games as governed by the Commonwea ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland. He was also part of the national team that won the men's team bronze medals at the

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, and the

2023 SEA Games The 2023 Southeast Asian Games (, UNGEGN: ''Kar Brâkuŏt Keila Brâchéachéatĕ Asi Aknéy 2023''), also known as the 32nd Southeast Asian Games, or the 32nd SEA Games, and commonly known as Cambodia 2023, were the 32nd edition of the Southe ...

. He made his second appearance at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

in Gold Coast 2018.

2022: Commonwealth Games success

Hee opened the 2022 season by winning the mixed doubles title at the

India Open The India Open is an annual badminton event which has been held in India since 2008 and is a BWF World Tour Super 750 international badminton tournament. Its first three editions were designated as Grand Prix Gold events. In 2011, it was upgr ...

partnering

. The duo later captured their second World Tour title of the year by winning the Orléans Masters. In May 2022, Hee competed at the

2021 SEA Games The 2021 Southeast Asian Games (), officially known as the 31st Southeast Asian Games, 31st SEA Games or SEA Games 31, and also recognized as Viet Nam 2021, were the 31st edition of the Southeast Asian Games, the biennial regional multi-sport e ...

. He won the bronze medals in the men's team and doubles events. Terry Hee and Tan Wei Han of Singapore

At the

in August, Hee was part of the Singaporean team who won the bronze medal in the mixed team events as the Singaporean team defeated England 3–0 at the bronze medal playoff. Hee had also competed at the individual mixed doubles event with his wife, Tan. They won a historic gold medal and Singapore's first Commonwealth Games badminton mixed doubles gold after beating England's

Marcus Ellis Marcus Ellis (born 14 September 1989) is a British badminton player. He was the men's doubles champion in the English National Championships. Ellis and Chris Langridge won a bronze medal in the Badminton at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's dou ...

and Lauren Smith in the final, with a score of 21–16, 21–15 in straight sets.

2023–2024: Roller Coaster Journey to Paris Olympics

After crowning as the Commonwealth Games mixed-double champion in 2022, the forms of Hee and Tan dipped. The duo suffered early-round exits in their subsequent tournaments in 2022 and won just three out of nine matches in their first six tournaments of 2023. The 2024 Paris Olympics qualification period began on May 1, 2023. However, the chances of the pair qualifying for the Olympics were slim, as they won only one of their next nine matches. The turnaround came after they started playing in lower-tier tournaments to boost confidence. They clinched second place in the Abu Dhabi Masters (BWF World Tour 100) in October and won the Iris Open, a BWF international challenge tournament in November. They ended 2023 with another two silverware from BWF World Tour 100 events: winning the Guwahati Masters and making the final of Odisha Masters. The haul of points from these tournaments significantly improved their chance to qualify for the Olympics. In 2024, Hee and Tan started the year strong by making it into the semi-final of Malaysia Open, a BWF World Tour 1000 event. However, since then, second-round appearances were their best in all subsequent tournaments until the end of the 2024 Paris Olympics qualification period. They ranked 18th on the BWF Race to Paris rankings on April 30, 2024, and thus missed out on the automatic qualification spots. There were only 16 slots for the doubles at the Paris Olympics. Only the first 13 eligible pairs were allocated slots via the Race to Paris rankings, while the remaining three spots were given to the continental champions of America, Africa and Oceania. Fortunately, Hee and Tan received a lifeline after Australia, which had qualified in four badminton events, elected to take up the slots in the women’s singles and women’s doubles, thus freeing up a mixed doubles spot for Hee and Tan, the next eligible pair in the rankings. They became the first local-born mixed doubles duo from Singapore to qualify for the Olympic Games. In the badminton mixed-double events in the 2024 Paris Olympics, Hee and Tan were assigned to Group D together with Feng Yanzhe / Huang Dongping of China (2nd seed), Chen Tang Jie / Toh Ee Wei from Malaysia, and the American pair of Vinson Chiu / Jennie Gai. Hee and Tan played Chen and Toh in the opening match but lost 23–21 and 21–12. Up against China’s world no. 2 pair Feng and Huang next, the duo could not overcome their rivals, losing 21-13, 21-17, thus missing out on the quarter-finals Hee and Tan ended their Olympics campaign with a win though as they beat United States’ Chiu and Gai, 21–17, 21–12 in the last group fixture.

2024: A New Partnership With Jin Yujia

Post-Olympics, Hee and Tan continued to contest in major World Tour tournaments, but all ended with 1st round exits. While competing in the Macau Open, where they were seeded second, their campaign was abruptly halted in the first round against Ye Hong Wei and Nicole Chan (Chinese Taipei). Tan suffered a hamstring injury amid the second set, and the duo had to retire. It was announced in November 2024 that Hee would form a new partnership with Jin Yujia, as Jessica Tan had not fully recovered from her injuries and was not sufficiently competition-fit. The Hee-Jin partnership had a promising start in their first competition by reaching the semi-finals of Guwahati Masters. A week later, they made it into the final at the Odisha Masters but fell 15-21, 21-15, 21-15 in 54 minutes to China’s Gao Jiaxuan and Tang Ruizhi to finish runners-up.. Finally, In only their third competition together, Hee and Jin succeeded in capturing their first title together at the Bangladesh International Challenge beating India’s Bokka Navaneeth and Ritika Thaker 21-14, 21-16 in the final.

Personal life

Hee married fellow Singaporean shuttler

in October, 2021. They had often partnered at mixed doubles tournaments since the start of Hee's professional career. Their victory at the 2021 Czech Open, defeating Russians Lev Barinov and Anastasiia Boiarun, was their first tournament as a married duo. They were made HSBC Life Singapore's first brand ambassadors in 2023. In 2024, Singlife committed to a sponsorship deal with the couple upon their Olympic qualification.

Awards and nominations

Hee and Jessica Tan were nominated for the 2022 ST Athlete of the Year Award. They were also conferred the Team of the Year (Event) award in the Singapore Sports Awards 2023 by the Singapore National Olympic Council.

Achievements

Commonwealth Games

''Mixed doubles''

SEA Games

''Men's doubles''

BWF World Tour (3 titles, 3 runners-up)

The BWF World Tour, which was announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018, is a series of elite badminton tournaments sanctioned by the

Badminton World Federation The Badminton World Federation, aka BWF, is the international governing body for the sport of badminton approved by the International Olympic Committee. It was founded on 5 July 1934 as the International Badminton Federation with nine member ...

(BWF). The BWF World Tours are divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300 (part of the HSBC World Tour), and the BWF Tour Super 100. ''Mixed doubles''

BWF International Challenge/Series (12 titles, 5 runners-up)

''Men's doubles'' ''Mixed doubles'' :

BWF International Challenge The BWF International Challenge is a grade 3 and level 1 tournament part of Continental Circuit of BWF tournaments along with International Series (level 2) and Future Series (level 3), sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007. ...

tournament :

BWF International Series The BWF International Series is a grade 3 and level 2 tournament part of Continental Circuit of BWF tournaments along with International Challenge (level 1) and Future Series (level 3), sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007. ...

tournament :

BWF Future Series The BWF Future Series is a grade 3 and level 3 tournaments part of Continental Circuit of BWF tournaments along with International Challenge (level 1) and International Series (level 2), sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007. ...

tournament

References

External links

*
Terry Hee
at

Singapore Badminton Association Singapore Badminton Association (abbreviation: SBA) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for badminton in Singapore. It governs, encourages and develops the sport throughout the country. Founded in 1929, the SBA is an affilia ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hee, Terry 1995 births Living people Singaporean sportspeople of Chinese descent Singaporean male badminton players 21st-century Singaporean sportsmen Singapore Sports School alumni Badminton players at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic badminton players for Singapore Badminton players at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Badminton players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Badminton players at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Singapore Commonwealth Games gold medallists in badminton Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Singapore Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in badminton Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Badminton players at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for Singapore Competitors at the 2015 SEA Games Competitors at the 2017 SEA Games Competitors at the 2019 SEA Games Competitors at the 2021 SEA Games Competitors at the 2023 SEA Games SEA Games bronze medalists for Singapore SEA Games medalists in badminton