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By Joyce Kay and Ong Sze Ying
Getting nominated for a 2007 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award is no child’s play. A potential nominee is required to both excel in his field as well inspire others to do the same. And even that may not be enough. To truly be able to be declared a potential, you must possess the elusive X-factor.
Theresa Goh has all the prerequisites. And in spades, to boot.
She joins the ranks of Stefanie Sun, Taufik Batisah, Hady Mirza and Lionel Lewis, nominees of the inaugural Singapore Wannabe Award. Her very nomination is testament to the many accomplishments she has achieved.
20-year-old Theresa suffers from spina bifida, a medical condition that results in an incompletely formed spinal cord. Despite her disability, she has been wowing her fans since she was introduced to competitive swimming when she was 11. She is one of Singapore’s two Olympic hopefuls for Beijing 2008, and has only just rewritten her own two world records in May.
Theresa’s impressive credentials having been acknowledged internationally on the Nickelodeon website, it was then left to nicksters to decide which local star had endeared himself or herself to them the most. The results of the voting—purely determined by number of votes—were then announced on 3rd June, at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards preview at the Grand Cathay.
This awards preview was no less chichi than its movie counterparts. Screaming fan-girls? Check. Goodie bags teeming with indescribable, jealousy-inducing treasures? Check. Stars sashaying down the red carpet? Ch-er, no, but that’s only because the carpet was a blinding neon orange.
Besides some of the Wannabe nominees, Blue (star of Blue’s Clues) and Jimmy Neutron were also in attendance. These two Nickelodeon heavyweights entertained the crowd with their antics both on the orange carpet and in the theatre. With them hyping up the scene, the audience was all pumped up. Thus, when it was time for the disclosure of the Singapore’s Wannabe Award during the preview break, everyone was yelling hysterically for their favourites; resembling a scene from Bring It On, where the cheerleaders were cheering at a football game; albeit in this case, it was with pong bong sticks (thunder sticks) and not pom-poms.
Theresa did not win. Taufik Batisah won the much coveted orange blimp as well as the affirmation that kids all over the country most “want to be” him. With pong bong sticks a-waving, Taufik bounded from the steps of the theatre to receive his award. During his acceptance speech, Taufik gave kudos to all the other nominees.
Theresa may not have been the Singapore wannabe, but the fact that she is one of only two sportspersons nominated for the award, as well as the only disabled nominee, has already shown the increasing public recognition of the abilities of these athletes.
And hey, at least she got free popcorn!