Saturday, August 8, 2015

beauty and the weight lifter

To be both a beauty queen and a champion weightlifter is not unheard of nowadays, but in 1940s Singapore it was a very unusual path for a young girl.
Ho Lye Toh was a teenager who could lift weights of up to 100kg (220lb). Now 92, she might be Singapore's most famous nonagenarian after her remarkable life story surfaced in an article earlier this year and enraptured the city.
Her father was Ho Peng Khoen, a school teacher and former Malayan weightlifting champion. In 1941, he made a decision that changed her life.
"I was 14 and I fell sick quite often, sometimes so bad that I would pass out. So my father decided I should begin exercising to build body strength," Madam Ho said.
 It's all "ancient history" ... just like today.

1 comment:

  1. True beauty is a smile and a kindness. And the healthier, better you feel, the more likely perhaps to offer a smiling kindness.

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