For most athletes, missing a national team slot once is devastating. Twice is crushing. Three times is enough to make anyone close the chapter for good.
But Ben Khoo isn’t “anyone”.
He is a 34-year-old triathlete who refused to walk away, even when the door kept closing, even when his chances seemed to shrink with age, and even when the dream of wearing Singapore colours felt more and more out of reach.
Today, he stands as the oldest member of the 2025 SEA Games triathlon team, an Ironman national record holder, and one of the sport’s fiercest examples of resilience.
And the road here is a story worth telling.
From Adventure Racing Kid to Triathlon Lifelonger
Khoo first discovered multisport not through triathlon, but through adventure racing in secondary school, a chaotic playground of running, mountain biking, and kayaking.
“When I left school, I found it was quite difficult to assemble a team because there were not many adventure races in Singapore,” he recalled. So he pivoted to the next closest thing: multisport on his own.
His first taste was the 2009 Navy Biathlon, where he “swam 1.5 kilometres and ran 10 kilometres,” a rite of passage for many budding endurance athletes. The progression was natural. Add a bike, and it became triathlon.
But buying that bike? That was another story.
Khoo saved for “about four months giving tuition” to afford his first aluminium road bike, then hid it in his neighbour’s house. “My parents didn’t want me cycling on the road,” he laughed. “So they were wondering why I was leaving the house at 4:30am every morning.” The truth eventually came out, and as Khoo puts it, “the rest is history”.
California, Collegiate Racing, and a New Level of Speed
University brought Ben to California, where he trained with both the Berkeley and Stanford triathlon teams, an environment far deeper and faster than anything he’d experienced in Singapore.
“I was exposed to a different level of racing. It helped me step up my game,” he shared. That experience planted a seed: maybe one day, he could race for Singapore.
Three SEA Games Selection Heartbreaks
In 2018, Khoo returned home and decided to take his shot at national representation. He entered the 2019 SEA Games selection. “I finished third and didn’t make the team of two,” he said. “It was so near yet so far.”
That disappointment would repeat again and again for the 2021 and 2023 SEA Games selection trials. In the latter trials, because of the COVID-19 pandemic,
the selection process was slightly different and Khoo thought he would have made the team. Thus when he did not, he “felt hurt”.
Three attempts. Three heartbreaks.
“After three failures, I decided… why don’t I try something else that I could be good at?” Khoo thought. Thus, he made the bold decision to retire from short-course racing and try long-course instead.
And that’s where everything changed.
Breaking the Singapore Ironman Record
He had set two goals for 2024:
- Break the Singapore Ironman record
- Represent Singapore at the SEA Games
That first goal? He nailed it, spectacularly.
At Ironman Hamburg in June this year, Khoo clocked 8:49:46, rewriting the national record books. It was the performance of his life, and proof that his best years were far from behind him.
But the second goal, the one he had chased for nearly a decade, still weighed heavily on him.
Finally Making the Team at 34
With the clock ticking on his competitive window, Khoo decided to try just one more time. “Coming into the selections for this year’s SEA Games, I took a more relaxed approach,” he said. “There really wasn’t much to lose.”
And this time, the outcome was different.
“After eight years of trying, I made the Singapore SEA Games triathlon team,” he smiled. At 34, he is now the oldest athlete on the squad.
Does the age thing bother him? “Honestly, no,” Khoo shrugged. “I see myself as an older mentor to the younger athletes… not just in sport, but helping them manage their life outside of sport too.”
Building Pathways: The Youth Development Programme
Khoo isn’t just thinking about his own racing, he’s also thinking about the future of triathlon in Singapore. “I know my racing days are numbered,” he admitted, “and I want to create opportunities for young athletes.”
He partnered with Triathlon Singapore to build a Youth Development Programme, something he wishes existed when he was their age.
Already, the impact is real.
“I’m very proud that four of the athletes from our programme represented Singapore at the Asian Youth Games this year,” he added. “We hope to do more of this so that more athletes have opportunities to represent Singapore in the region and to the world.”
The Legacy of a Relentless Athlete
His story isn’t just about finally making the national team. It’s about longevity. Adaptability. Resilience. Reinvention.
It’s about a kid who hid his bike in a neighbour’s house becoming a national record holder. It’s about an athlete who failed three times, yet still showed up for the fourth.
Most of all, it’s about a man determined to open doors for the next generation, even as he races through the closing chapters of his own elite career.
Ben Khoo is proof that it’s never too late, never too far, and never too old to chase a dream.
And now, he’ll finally wear the Singapore flag he’s chased for almost a decade – not just as an athlete, but as a mentor, a builder, and a symbol of perseverance.
