In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 6 July 1995
- Birthplace
- Not reliably documented
- Country
- Singapore
- Nationality
- Singaporean
- Known for
- Commonwealth Games mixed-doubles gold and the 2022 India Open title with Jessica Tan
- Name in athlete records
- Hee Yong Kai Terry
- 2022 India Open
- Mixed-doubles champion with Jessica Tan
- Birmingham 2022
- Individual mixed-doubles gold · mixed-team bronze
- Olympic debut
- Paris 2024 · mixed-doubles group stage
- Marriage
- Jessica Tan Wei Han · 2021
Why this life matters
Hee’s career connects Singapore’s youth development pathway, men’s and mixed doubles, a Commonwealth breakthrough and an Olympic partnership.
Timeline
Key moments
Born on 6 July
The regional confederation records his date of birth; conflicting birthplace accounts are kept unresolved.
Entered professional badminton
Progressed through Singapore Sports School’s youth system and won Commonwealth mixed-team bronze in Glasgow.
Marriage and a Czech Open title
Married Jessica Tan and won their first event together as a married pair.
India Open champion
Won the 16 January mixed-doubles final against Chen Tang Jie and Peck Yen Wei.
Commonwealth mixed-doubles gold
Defeated Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith in Birmingham; Singapore also won mixed-team bronze.
Olympic debut with Jessica
Won one group match in Paris but did not advance to the quarterfinals.
A short partnership with Gloria Widjaja
Played four tournaments together; SBA announced the partnership’s end on 18 March.
Singapore Sports School and early international experience
Terry Hee, listed in athlete records as Hee Yong Kai Terry, was born on 6 July 1995. He progressed through the Singapore Sports School badminton programme and began his professional career in 2014. His early international experience included Singapore’s mixed-team bronze at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games that year.
Badminton Asia also records men’s team bronzes at the 2015, 2017 and 2019 Southeast Asian Games. These shared team results preceded the individual mixed-doubles titles that later brought him wider recognition.
Men’s doubles and a partnership with Jessica Tan
Hee competed in more than one doubles discipline. His men’s doubles work included a partnership with Loh Kean Hean, while Jessica Tan Wei Han became his best-known mixed-doubles partner. Results from those different pairings should remain attached to the appropriate event and teammate.
Hee and Tan married in 2021. Their first tournament as a married pair was the Czech Open, which they won against Lev Barinov and Anastasiia Boiarun. The result formed part of an established partnership, before their first Super 500 title in India.
An India Open breakthrough in January 2022
On 16 January 2022, Hee and Tan defeated Malaysia’s Chen Tang Jie and Peck Yen Wei 21–15, 21–18 in the India Open mixed-doubles final. Singapore Sports School’s report describes a 40-minute match, and BWF’s official podium identifies the Singaporeans as champions and the Malaysians as runners-up.
It was the pair’s first Super 500 title, not their first title at any level. The school’s contemporary account counted it as their seventh victory together. The win also placed two Singapore events in the same finals-day story: Loh Kean Yew reached the men’s singles final, but his runner-up result was separate from Hee and Tan’s mixed-doubles championship.
Commonwealth gold and an Olympic debut
At Birmingham 2022, Hee and Tan won Singapore’s first Commonwealth Games mixed-doubles badminton title. They defeated England’s Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith 21–16, 21–15 in the final. Hee also received a mixed-team bronze. The individual gold and team bronze were different events, and the mixed-doubles milestone was not Singapore’s first Commonwealth badminton gold of any kind.
The pair made their Olympic debut at Paris 2024. They lost group matches to Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, and to Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping, before beating Vinson Chiu and Jennie Gai. One victory was not enough to reach the quarterfinals. Their Commonwealth success therefore did not translate into an Olympic medal in Paris.
A changing playing partnership in 2026
In January 2026, Hee began competing with Indonesia’s Gloria Widjaja. Over four tournaments they reached the Thailand Masters second round, Indonesia Masters quarterfinals and German Open semifinals. At the All England they lost a close first-round match to Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping, 21–18, 18–21, 19–21.
On 18 March, the Singapore Badminton Association announced that the partnership had ended and that Widjaja would reunite with Rehan Kusharjanto. SBA said it was evaluating further playing, mentoring and coaching possibilities for Hee. Those were options under consideration, not a retirement announcement or a confirmed coaching appointment. His wife and earlier title partner Jessica should not automatically be described as his current playing partner either.
Sources for this section: [7]
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Terry Hee
- Are Terry Hee and Hee Yong Kai Terry the same player?
- Yes. Both name forms identify the Singapore badminton player born on 6 July 1995.
- Is Terry Hee married to Jessica Tan?
- Yes. They married in 2021 and won major mixed-doubles titles together, including the 2022 India Open and Commonwealth Games.
- What did Terry Hee win at Birmingham 2022?
- Individual mixed-doubles gold with Jessica Tan and a separate mixed-team bronze. They beat Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith in the individual final.
- Did Terry Hee win an Olympic medal at Paris 2024?
- No. He and Jessica Tan won one mixed-doubles group match but did not advance to the quarterfinals.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Jessica Tan Wei Han
Explore Jessica’s own education, doubles career, Olympic debut and retirement transition.
- Peck Yen Wei
Read the career of one of his Malaysian opponents in the 2022 India Open final.
- Chen Tang Jie
Follow the other India Open finalist into a later world-title partnership.
- Loh Kean Yew
Compare the separate men’s singles final in India and Singapore’s Olympic singles campaign.
- Joseph Schooling
Distinguish Singapore’s Olympic swimming gold from Hee’s Commonwealth badminton title.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Badminton AsiaThe Best of Asia: Hee Yong Kai Terry, 3 February 2022
Used for the dated youth pathway, birth date and earlier partnerships. Its February 2022 rankings and upcoming-event plans are not treated as current results.
- 2. Team SingaporeHee Yong Kai Terry: athlete record
- 3. Singapore Sports SchoolIndia Open 2022: final date, opponents, score and Super 500 milestone
The school’s indexed original report supplies the final date and score; direct retrieval returned an access error. BWF’s podium independently confirms the winning partnership. Unrelated singles prose in the school account is not used for its inconsistent match narration.
- 4. Badminton World FederationIndia Open 2022 official podium
- 5. Singapore Sports SchoolBirmingham 2022: individual mixed gold and team bronze
The indexed school report distinguishes individual mixed-doubles gold from mixed-team bronze. It is not evidence of an Olympic medal or Singapore’s first-ever badminton gold.
- 6. Singapore Badminton AssociationParis 2024 review: mixed-doubles group results
SBA describes the pair as Singapore-born, while the linked 2021 NST account describes Hee as Penang-born. This review does not resolve the conflict: the precise birthplace is withheld from structured data and no migration or naturalisation chronology is invented.
- 7. Singapore Badminton Association18 March 2026: Hee and Widjaja end their partnership
The March 2026 announcement concerns the end of a four-tournament partnership and possible future roles. No present partner, coaching appointment or retirement is inferred from those options.
- 8. New Straits Times · original report2021 report describing Hee as Penang-born: conflicting birthplace account
- 9. Wikimedia Commons / TanDavidPhotographyTerry Hee at the 2022 Singapore Open: CC BY-SA 4.0 image
Commons identifies TanDavidPhotography’s own men’s doubles photograph taken on 14 July 2022, not a Birmingham final or Paris Olympic image. The complete source frame is retained; only resizing and WebP conversion were applied.
