Throwing Her Best

Discus throwing is a sporting event that dates back to the ancient Greek Olympics. Malaysia’s contribution to the sport comes in the form of Karen Yap, national record-breaker and medal winner. She takes time out of her training for the upcoming SEA Games to chat with HealthToday.

- Tee I-Wei

When you first meet Karen Yap, 30, you cannot miss her height or the strength of her upper body. She carries herself with confidence, with the physicality of someone who has spent many hours of her life pushing her body to be better, stronger, faster. She has what some might call presence.

From the moment we stepped into Dynamique, the sports injury and rehabilitation centre jointly owned by Karen and her friend and business partner Kate Lai, Karen’s presence was ubiquitous: chatting with us, greeting walk-in customers, smiling at us from the many newspaper cuttings of her framed on the wall, patiently doing pose after pose for our photographers, while also making sure to check in with Kate from time to time. Then, you will also notice this about her: in the midst of all these activities, she remains calm, cool and collected, taking everything in her stride. Perhaps this is the kind of quality that one would envision a SEA Games athlete and national discus thrower to have – paced, in control of herself and her surroundings, plus a sort of steady resilience that comes only after years of training in blood, sweat and tears. For Karen, we can safely say that she is all of these things, and then some.

A Promising Beginning

In contrast to her unfazed demeanour, Karen describes herself as a “wild child” growing up, seldom at home and very much independent. So, when she discovered sports and was all ready to throw herself headlong into it, her mum, a former state-level javelin thrower and discus thrower, was happy to encourage her to take it up. Karen’s first foray into the sporting arena was basketball in primary school, whilst dabbling in shot put. She explains that she was picked for those events at that time because “I was already like this tall”. Good genes? She nods; and she wasn’t one to complain, because height was a sure advantage in discus throwing.