Amanda Lim arrived in Nagoya with a reason to believe her fifth Asian Games could be her best: at 33, she had set a national record in her signature sprint only months earlier. She hoped the race would show how much more she could improve, even though she had never won an Asian Games medal.
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A record that changed the outlook
On May 30, 2026, Lim won the women’s 50m freestyle at the Singapore National Swimming Championships in 24.77 seconds. The time broke Quah Ting Wen’s 2019 national record of 24.92 seconds and was a personal best for Lim. It gave her a concrete reason to think her fastest swimming might still lie ahead.
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Her record at the SEA Games was already substantial: 21 gold medals, including seven in the 50m freestyle. The Asian Games presented a different, still-unmet goal. Nagoya was her fifth appearance at the continental competition, where she had yet to win a medal.
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How she prepared for Nagoya
Lim pursued improvement alongside a consulting career in Singapore, taking time away from work to train in Australia. In a post about her preparations, she described a focused training period there in April; in an earlier post, she said a Brisbane stint with coach Tim Lane and swimmer Cameron McEvoy was aimed at making her faster, stronger and smarter in the pool.
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A report on her build-up described work on strength, explosiveness, mobility and body position in the water, followed by a focus on preparing for the all-out demands of a 50m race. Those are reported elements of her preparation, not a full account of her training programme.
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What counted as her best Asian Games?
A medal or another personal best would have been a clear result, but Lim did not make either the sole measure of the campaign. Before the Games, she said she had learned a great deal during the preceding year of preparation and had grown as a person. The fact that she was swimming faster than ever mattered to her, regardless of whether Nagoya brought a podium finish.
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The result: Lim qualified third from the heats and finished fifth in the women’s 50m freestyle final in 24.79 seconds—just 0.02 seconds outside her national record. She did not win an Asian Games medal, but her swim was close to the time that had made her optimistic in the first place.
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