Life would have been simpler, says Pandelela

PETALING JAYA: Olympic silver medallist Pandelela Rinong has devoted her energy and time to diving so much so that she says she doesn't know what life is outside the sport.
Pandelala left Bau, a small town in the Kuching Division, to be part of the national diving team at 14. Her life revolves the sport and she feels detached from her family.
"Once you are outside diving, you don't know what is out there," Malaysian Tatler quoted Pandelela as saying in its Aug issue. "It feels like there is nothing outside this life."
"Since the age of eight, when I started diving, I've always been trained to be obedient and follow the instructions of superiors, or someone elder than me."
In one of her previous Instagram posts on National Siblings Day, she wrote: "Trying to understand my siblings is harder than winning the Olympics".
"I am quite distant from my two little sisters because I have been living apart from them," said Pandelela.
"I also know that my parents don't fully realise the situation with my career, but it's understandable. I sometimes cannot express how I truly feel with them; I do feel that my friends understand me more than my family."
Nevertheless, Pandelela is grateful to the sport, how it has changed her life and enabled her to move onto the world stage and do what she does best.
"I think I would have been just a normal girl, doing ordinary routines like going to school, getting married early," she said. "It probably would have been a simpler life. My cousins, who are younger than me are happily married with children. I'm grateful for the life I've led, and it is because of diving that I managed to move from a small town to KL."
Pandelela is set to compete in this month's SEA Games.