Veronica Shanti Pereira: Singapore’s Sprint Queen

Personal Background

Veronica Shanti Pereira was born on September 20, 1996, making her 28 years old. She is a Singaporean of Eurasian heritage and has become the most celebrated track and field athlete in modern Singaporean history, earning the affectionate title of “Singapore’s Sprint Queen.”

Early Life and Introduction to Athletics

Pereira was introduced to track and field when she was in Primary Three at CHIJ (Katong) Primary, after watching her elder sister compete in a school race. Coming from a family of runners, sports were always part of her DNA. Her father Clarence Pereira, mother Jeet, sister Valerie and brother Anand were all sprinters, creating an environment where athletic excellence was nurtured and celebrated.

She subsequently enrolled in Singapore Sports School, where she led them to the C Division team championship at the National School Games. Valerie was in the first intake at the Singapore Sports School, paving the way for Shanti’s own athletic journey at the institution.

Education

Pereira studied for a diploma in sports and leisure management offered jointly by Republic Polytechnic and Singapore Sports School. Her academic journey continued when in 2017, she was awarded the Yip Pin Xiu Scholarship to study accountancy at Singapore Management University. She was the first recipient of the SMU Yip Pin Xiu Scholarship, a full sports scholarship open to outstanding Singaporean athletes who “have shown and will continue to demonstrate the spirit of excellence, outshining in sports and representing Singapore with pride and glory”.

However, her path through university was not without challenges. In 2018, she lost the scholarship, being unable to keep the minimum GPA requirements. This setback occurred during a particularly difficult period in her athletic career. Pereira eventually graduated in 2021, demonstrating remarkable resilience and determination to complete her degree despite the obstacles.

Athletic Accomplishments

National Records and Rankings

Veronica Shanti Pereira is the fastest woman in Southeast Asia and holds multiple Singaporean national records:

100 meters: 11.20 seconds (national record)

200 meters: 22.57 seconds (national record)

400 meters: 53.67 seconds (national record)

4×100 meters relay: 44.96 seconds (national record)

200m SEA Games record: 22.69 seconds

200m Asian Athletics Championships games record: 22.70 seconds

She was ranked 1st in Asia in 2023 for both the 100m and 200m based on World Athletics’ records. As of 2025, she is currently ranked #46 in the world in the women’s 200m and #108 in the women’s 100m.

Youth Achievements

Pereira set numerous records in her youth, including U-23 records for the 100m (11.80s) and 200m (23.99s), U-19 records for the 100m (11.89s) and 200m (23.99s), U-17 records for the 100m (12.21s) and 200m (24.92s), and U-15 records for the 100m (12.68s).

In 2013, Pereira became the first female Singaporean to run the 100m in under 12 seconds when she clocked 11.89s at the 2013 World Youth Championships in Athletics in Donetsk, Ukraine.

Southeast Asian Games Success

2015 SEA Games (Singapore): Pereira won the bronze medal in the 100m with a time of 11.88s, Singapore’s first medal in the event in 42 years. She also won the gold medal in the 200m with a time of 23.60s, rewriting the national record—this was Singapore’s first gold medal in a sprint event in the SEA Games in 42 years.

2017 & 2019 SEA Games: Pereira won bronze medals in both the 100m and 200m at the 2017 Southeast Asian Games; she repeated this double at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

2022 SEA Games (Vietnam): Pereira won the gold medal in the 200m with a time of 23.52s, rewriting the national record she had set in the 2015 Southeast Asian Games. In the 100m, she won the silver medal, clocking 11.62s.

2023 SEA Games (Cambodia): Pereira won her second consecutive women’s 200m gold on Monday after clocking a Games and national record time of 22.69 seconds at the Cambodia SEA Games.

Historic Asian Games Breakthrough (2023)

2023 marked a watershed year for Pereira and Singapore athletics. At the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, on September 29, she made the 100m final after finishing 3rd in her heat with a time of 11.42s. In the final, she clinched silver with a time of 11.27s, being edged out by China’s Ge Manqi by 0.04s—this was the first Asian Games track and field medal for Singapore in 49 years.

The next day, Pereira qualified for the 200m final with a time of 23.14s, the fastest in the heats. In the final, she won gold with a time of 23.03s, also ending Singapore’s 49-year wait for a gold medal in track and field at the Asian Games since Chee Swee Lee’s triumph in the women’s 400m back in 1974 Asian Games.

Asian Athletics Championships

In July 2023, she won the 100m-200m sprint double at the Asian championships in Bangkok, becoming the first Singaporean to win an Asian track gold in nearly 50 years.

World Championships and Olympic Qualification

Pereira became the first Singaporean to qualify for the World Athletics Championships on merit through her world rankings position of 23rd in the world for the women’s 200m and 47th for the women’s 100m. She became the first Singaporean to qualify for the Championships on merit and also the first to compete in more than one event at the World Athletics Championships.

At the 2023 World Athletics Championships, she qualified for the 200m semi-final with a new national record time of 22.57s, placing 12th overall in a field of 44. This made her the first Singaporean to ever progress to a semi-final at the World Championships.

This performance also secured her Olympic qualification, making her the first Singaporean to qualify for the 200m event at the Olympics on merit by meeting the Olympic Qualifying mark of 22.57s.

Olympic Games

Tokyo 2020: In 2021, Pereira qualified for the 200m in the 2020 Summer Olympics through universality places. She finished 6th in her heat with a season-best time of 23.96s.

Paris 2024: In the 200m, Pereira clocked 23.21s in Round 1, finishing last in Heat 5. With 6 slots up for grabs in the repechage, Pereira again placed last in Heat 1 with a timing of 23.45s, bowing out of the 2024 Paris Olympic games, finishing 31st out of 45 competitors. A fibula injury sustained in April left her needing to “bounce back from the bottom” to compete in Paris.

Overcoming Adversity: The 2018 Crisis

Pereira’s journey has been marked by significant setbacks that make her subsequent achievements all the more remarkable. Five years before her 2023 triumphs, injuries beset the then-student, who performed under par at the 2018 Asian Games and ended up losing two scholarships – a sports high-performance scholarship and a university scholarship – in the space of one week.

Reflecting on this difficult period, Pereira said: “When I was at my lowest, it was the people around me that helped me get through it all. My family, they’ve been my number one supporters from the very beginning, they knew that I love track and field and they knew I had a gift. They really got me out of a lot of struggles, um, back then”.

In October 2022, Sport Singapore announced that Pereira was one of seven athletes who had joined the 2022 Sport Excellence (Spex) Scholarship programme; she was previously a Spex scholar between 2016 and 2018. She had lost the Spex scholarship in 2018 as she was unable to medal at the 2018 Asian Games.

Professional Career and Coaching

Undeterred by setbacks, Shanti graduated from Singapore Management University in 2021, before deciding to turn fully professional as an athlete. This decision proved transformational.

When she joined Coach Luis Cunha, he “helped me really change my perspective of what I do. He helped me realise that to really reach my fullest potential, I had to recognise myself as a professional athlete, and that requires sacrifice”.

Prior to becoming a full-time athlete, Pereira worked as a fashion content creator at local content and media agency DC Creative, demonstrating her ability to balance athletics with professional work.

Personal Life and Interests

Family and Support System

Shanti is the youngest of four siblings and describes her sisters as “my second moms and my best friends.” She credits them with helping her through tough times: “When I say it’s a team effort every time I race, they’re included. They’re the ones who help me through really tough times and the people I want to share all of my wins with”.

Pereira’s life journey has been chronicled by her older sisters, Valerie and Shobi Pereira, in the children’s book, “Go Shanti Go!”, which aims to inspire young children to follow their dreams.

Engagement

On June 12, 2024, Pereira announced her engagement to her boyfriend Tan Zong Yang, a former national sprinter who won the 400m bronze at Hanoi SEA Games in 2022. The couple got engaged in Stockholm on June 9, 2024. Tan has been a constant figure of support in Pereira’s life, travelling to cheer her on at various meets, including the Hangzhou Asian Games and Asian Athletics Championships in 2023.

Tattoos and Their Meanings

Pereira has seven or eight tattoos, each with personal significance:

Her first tattoo was a lightning bolt on her ankle “to represent my relationship with track and field”.

She has a tattoo of the Olympic symbol near her right wrist, which she got after attending the Tokyo Olympics: “After competing in the Olympic Games, I got the tattoo because I wanted to remember that I went through such a hard time when I was competing on the biggest stage of my athletic career. But I got through that, and if I can get through that, then I can get through anything else”.

She has a tattoo on her waist that’s “a symbol for falling down seven times but standing up eight”.

She has a sparrow tattoo on her left arm that “represents freedom to her,” symbolizing that “she only focuses on her own personal goals, free from what anyone else says or thinks about her”.

Her most recent tattoo is “a bird because I really like the artist’s work. And a bird symbolises feeling free and feeling alive”.

Fashion, Beauty, and Personal Interests

Pereira has a strong interest in fashion and beauty, stating: “I’ve always known that I wanted to do something related to fashion. My sisters, my mum and I, we were into clothes and makeup. So even though I love track, I also love all these other things”.

Aside from running, Shanti regularly posts non-sport content on her Instagram, showing her adoring audience what she uses for her daily skincare routine and the products she likes.

During off-season, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, exploring new hobbies, and indulging in her favourite food, like coffee with butter toasts.

Mental Health and Personal Philosophy

Pereira has been open about her struggles with mental health: “For a long time, I was really afraid of disappointing the people around me, and obviously the country. What everyone said really affected me and made me scared to approach the start line and show up for training. I was falling out of love with my sport a little bit”.

She developed a healthier mindset over time: “I don’t care so much about what people are saying about me anymore. The only thing I can do is to just do me – focus on myself and my training, day in, day out. I think that mindset helped me grow as an athlete too”.

Recognition and Honors

On March 8, 2024 (International Women’s Day), Shanti Pereira was inducted into the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame, recognized as one of the 10 women honored that year.

Pereira was named Sportswoman of the Year at the Singapore Sports Awards.

Future Aspirations

Despite the disappointment of the Paris 2024 Olympics, Pereira has vowed she would fight on until the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. When asked about her future plans, she said: “I hope to be at the Los Angeles Olympic Games!”

Beyond athletics, Pereira hopes to further her career in the media industry: “I’ll probably be exploring that a bit more, whether it’s in the same field of writing or something else”.

Pereira is hopeful about inspiring the next generation: “I’m hoping my successes have given some sort of inspiration to everyone back home who has a passion in track and field and wants to see where they can go with it, and hopefully we see even more inspiring results in the future”.

Legacy and Impact

Veronica Shanti Pereira has transformed Singapore’s athletics landscape and shattered long-standing records that many thought would never be broken. Her achievements have ended decades-long medal droughts and inspired a new generation of Singaporean athletes.

As she reflected in a 2024 interview: “It gets harder to resist expectations as you progress further. When I won the Asian championships in July, people started to predict that I might win the Asian Games later that year. Now that I’ve qualified for Paris, the reaction I’m seeing is that some Singaporeans are expecting me to get a gold medal at the Olympics.” She maintained perspective, noting: “I have to bring them down to Earth occasionally with a reminder that some of my competitors are the best in the world—they are running a full second faster than me. In track and field terms, that’s a lot. It’s not about me not dreaming big enough, it’s just the reality of the situation”.

Her story is one of resilience, determination, and the power of family support. From losing scholarships and facing injuries to becoming Singapore’s first Asian Games athletics champion in 49 years, Pereira embodies the spirit of perseverance. She has shown that setbacks are not the end of the story—they can be the beginning of something greater.

As Singapore’s fastest woman and most successful track and field athlete in modern history, Veronica Shanti Pereira continues to inspire young athletes across Southeast Asia and beyond, proving that with dedication, support, and an unwavering belief in oneself, it’s possible to achieve the extraordinary.

Go Veronica!