PUBLISHED ONSeptember 23, 2026 3:08 AMBYSean LerSingapore's leaders have congratulated Team Singapore's mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Tiffany Teo on winning the Republic's first gold medal at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan on Tuesday (Sept 22).
The win is also historic given that MMA, along with BMX freestyle, padel, surfing and teqball, made their debut at the Asian Games this year.
"She and her husband, former teammate and coach, Sim Kai Xiong, earned victory through struggle," wrote President Tharman Shanmugaratnam in his social media post on Tuesday.
President Tharman noted that Teo had gone through many years of training and sacrifice before making it to the games in Nagoya.
She also had to overcome top competitors from Iran and India enroute to the finals, where she eventually defeated Uzbekistan's Khilola Sobirova, who had just won gold at the sport's Asian championship in May — beating Teo in the final.
The two fighters drew level after the first two rounds at the Asian Games final and in overtime round, Teo finally took the win, capping off her return from wilderness with a high note.
The 36-year-old did not fight for nearly three years between 2022 and 2025, returning to the octagon only in June 2025.
"I feel like this entire journey kind of led up to this moment. It's not just the fight camp in the past couple of months, it (was) the hours people didn't see when I started as a total beginner," Teo told reporters after the win.
In his Facebook post, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong also congratulated Teo for winning Singapore's first gold of the Games.
He also celebrated fencer Kiria Tikanah Abdul Rahman's silver in the women's individual epee, swimmer Gan Ching Hwee's silver in the 400m freestyle, and the strong performances by swimmers Russel Pang and Tedd Chan, and the women's table tennis team and wushu team.
Gan's also broke the national record she set at the 2025 World Aquatics Championship with her 16 minutes 0.45 seconds time.
Singapore now has one gold, three silvers and a bronze at the 20th Asian Games.
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