How Singapore athlete Ng Ming Wei's TikTok stardom helped him make it to the Tokyo Olympics - and why he's not actually competing

Viral Video Stars is a series where we hunt down viral icons. What's it like to be famous? What have they been up to? We catch up with them to find out all about life after viral fame.

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Making it to the Olympics is any athlete's dream but for 26-year-old Ng Ming Wei, Tokyo 2020 will be a bittersweet experience.

That's because the taekwondo athlete, who has a Commonwealth Taekwondo Championship gold medal and Southeast Asian Games silver medal under his belt isn't competing.

Even so, his presence at the games is a milestone in itself — thanks to the 18.4 million followers he has amassed on TikTok, along with another 2.6 million followers on Facebook, he's now working with World Taekwondo as a social media advisor for the Games.

From taekwondo star to TikToker

When we meet him, it's months before the Olympics, and Ming Wei seems to have come to terms with the fact that his childhood dream of representing Singapore in taekwondo at the Games won't be a reality, at least this time around.

"It was a very difficult, very hard decision to stop competing internationally for a while," he tells us, explaining that taekwondo had been his priority for years.

In fact, according to Shin Min Daily, Ming Wei's father Cedric Ng has spent over $120,000 out of his own pocket to fund his son's training and competition expenses over the years.

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/BtICFX0BXXT/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link[/embed]

Before the pandemic hit, Ming Wei trained multiple times a day, even during his regular school term. And once school was out, he would reach out to other national taekwondo athletes and fly out to train with them.

He'd even taken a leave of absence from his psychology studies at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in order to focus on his Tokyo Olympics goal.

But with his plans to train with the Norway national team and take part in international competitions ahead of the Games scuppered by Covid-19, he had to head home to Singapore.

Giving up on his Olympics dream — for now

His training shifted online, but it simply was not enough, he says.

"I felt it was very hard for me to even like, reach a level where I was representing Singapore. So I felt that it wasn't very responsible for me to say, 'I just want to go and compete for the sake of competing.'"

With all the uncertainty over whether the Games would even materialise, he decided to focus on his studies.

And then the circuit breaker period came, leaving Ming Wei stuck at home with more time on his hands than he was used to.

That was when he dove into making TikToks with his dad, which proved to be a hit.

Thanks to the duo's prank videos, many of which feature Ming Wei falling victim to his dad's nefarious jokes, they've each amassed millions of followers from around the globe.

@daddyming

My son got SO ANGRY at me for this prank @mingweirocks ? ##meme ##fail ##funny ##foryou ##viral

♬ original sound - DADDY MING ?

'I slept less than four hours a day'

Much like his tenacity in the sporting arena, Ming Wei dove into making TikToks with almost machine-like efficiency.

Eager to ride the wave of his initial viral success, he began brainstorming, filming, editing and posting multiple videos daily.

"I think at that point in time, I only slept like less than four hours a day. I told myself I would keep doing it until I hit 10 million."

The numbers game eventually took a toll on Ming Wei, he says, admitting that even after hitting the big 10, he still wasn't happy.

It was then that he began to rethink what viral fame meant to him.

Recalling his taekwondo days, when he would gather his friends for extra training and help them as much as he could, he says he realised that he wanted to use his platform for good.

"I realised that it wasn't just me winning alone that made me happy, but winning with a group of friends."

Finding a new purpose

Now, Ming Wei, who's gone on to found his own content studio Boom Digital Media, says he's focused on helping other people succeed on TikTok.

He's also partnered with vlogger Nuseir 'Nas' Yassin's Nas Academy to create an entire course on 'Unlocking TikTok'.

Even as he's all in on his social media career, he tells us that he still has love for taekwondo.

"It's still a blessing in disguise because I'm still able to actually promote Taekwondo and I'm able to let more people know about the sport," he says of his Olympics gig with World Taekwondo.

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As for the Paris 2024 Olympics, Ming Wei says it's all still up in the air.

"I think it has to depend on whether everything has stabilised and of course whether we have the financial means to actually train.

"Nobody knows what's going to happen."

kimberlylim@asiaone.com