PEREIRA Veronica Shanti

General
FULL-TIME ATHLETE
In 2023 she quit her job as a copywriter and became a full-time athlete. She funded the switch through one of Singapore's Sport Excellence Scholarships. "When I was working and training at the same time, it was a bit difficult to find time for recovery. It was hard to maintain a certain level of quality for all of my sessions, as there are some days where I just can't help it [as] I'm tired. Being an athlete is 24/7, 365 [days of the year)], so there are a lot of things that come into play outside of the actual training sessions - how I'm mentally preparing for it, my food, my sleep, how I recover." (todayonline, 07 Apr 2023)

BOOK PUBLISHED
Her older sisters Valerie and Shobi wrote a children's book called 'Go Shanti Go!' about her story at the 2015 South East Asian Games in Singapore. "My sisters were in the stands that day, watching my race. Every time we talk about it, they get so emotional. They were like, 'Shanti, you brought everybody together. It was such a nice moment'. And Valerie would get approached by people on the street, telling her that their kids were inspired by me. So my sisters wanted to find some way to remember those precious moments. Also, my other sister, Shobi, really enjoys writing. So they found an illustrator and the book came to life." (herworld, 04 Aug 2022; channelnewsasia, 02 Jun 2022)

She became the first female athlete representing Singapore to compete in the 200m at the Olympic Games when she participated at the 2020 Games in Tokyo. (SportsDeskOnline, 23 Oct 2022)