The Champion (TV series)

The Champion 任我遨游
Created by	Yeo Saik Pin
Starring	Jeanette Aw Toro Yen Hsing-su Qi Yuwu Julian Hee Felicia Chin Fiona Xie
Opening theme	任我遨游 by Yen Hsing-su and Toro
Country of origin	Singapore
Original language(s)	Mandarin
No. of episodes	30
Production
Producer(s)	Yeo Saik Pin
Distributor	MediaCorp TV
Release
Original network	Mediacorp Channel 8
Original release	20 October – 16 November 2004

The Champion (Chinese: 任我遨游) is an idol drama produced by Mediacorp in Singapore. It was telecast from October 20 to November 16, 2004. The show stars Taiwanese idol Toro, Yen Hsing-su, Qi Yuwu, Julian Hee, Jeanette Aw, Felicia Chin, Fiona Xie and Joyce Zhao, all young actors and actresses. This show also marked Jesseca Liu's acting debut.

It received one of the highest viewership rate during the telecast of the show, especially since there were a few semi-nude scenes such as Qi Yuwu stripping on-screen and Fiona Xie and other members of the Flying Fish running down Orchard Road in their bikinis.

This was also the first drama which allowed viewers to vote via a SMS competition on Nov 16 2004 for the viewers' favourite 2-minute short ending which was aired on Nov 17 2004 at 8.58 pm just before the debut of the next drama My Mighty In-Laws.

The series mainly dealt with the trials and travails of a Singaporean swimming team, the Flying Fish (飞鱼队, which could be a reference to a classic Singaporean drama about an aspiring swimmer, Flying Fish), and its constituent members. The team is locked in a vicious competition with the Seagulls swimming team (海鸥队), whose superior swimming abilities bred an intense arrogance that shows everywhere within the swimming complex they practice in.

After the Flying Fish lost a bet with the Seagulls, which resulted in the Flying Fish team running down Orchard Road wearing only bikinis, the team's manager hired a new swimming coach to rescue the team from the brink of dissolution. The coach, Ivan Jackson (also known as Wu Zhenkang), was very strict about the rigorous training, and this drew massive opposition at first, and earned him the title of "Polar Bear" (cold, uncaring, and "foreign"). However, the team's performance eventually improved, thanks to the training.

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