| Leslie Kwok | |
| Fullname: | Leslie Kwok Ying Wah |
| Strokes: | Freestyle |
| Club: | Chinese Swimming Club |
| Birth Date: | 12 November 1973 |
| Height: | 1.840NaN0 |
| Weight: | 780NaN0 |
| Show-Medals: | yes |
Leslie Kwok Ying Wah (born 12 November 1973) is a Singaporean former swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle events and later turned into an actor, entrepreneur, and a part-time professional model.[1] He earned three bronze medals each in the 50 m freestyle from the Southeast Asian Games, and later represented Singapore at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Kwok is also an Anglo-Chinese School alumnus, and later a graduate with a bachelor of science degree in civil and structural engineering at Nanyang Technological University.[2]
Kwok competed for Singapore in the men's 50 m freestyle at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He achieved a FINA B-cut of 23.72 from the Southeast Asian Games in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei.[3] [4] He challenged seven other swimmers in heat four, including Kyrgyzstan's Sergey Ashihmin, Goodwill Games silver medalist for Russia, and Kazakhstan's two-time Olympian Sergey Borisenko. Diving in with a 0.73-second deficit, Kwok scorched the entire race to share a fourth seed with Peru's Luis López Hartinger in an exact time of 24.00, but finished outside an entry standard. Kwok failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed forty-ninth overall in the prelims.[5] [6]
At the 2005 Southeast Asian Games in Manila, Kwok added a third bronze to his six-year-old hardware in the 50 m freestyle (23.58), finishing behind Indonesia's veteran Richard Sam Bera and Thailand's newcomer Arwut Chinnapasaen by more than half a second (0.50).
In early 2006, Kwok announced his official retirement from swimming to extend his resume in entrepreneurship and other lifestyle businesses. As a part-time professional model, he has appeared in several sports magazines, print ad campaigns, and TV commercials, and has featured on the cover of a popular Asian woman magazine Female. A top-class entrepreneur, Kwok currently owns a massage and health spa called Elements Spa & Slimming, founded in April 2002.[7] [8]