Victory Lap Star Gavin Teo Loved Flaunting His Ripped Bod On IG, Until It Attracted Lewd DMs From Thirsty Fans

Of course, he had to get into shape first. According to Gavin, he spent three months on a strict diet and exercise plan in addition to a month of intense swimming lessons.

“I started going to the gym a lot but I didn’t like how crowded it was, so I changed my routine and went to public fitness corners to do push-ups and pull-ups instead,” he shared with us over the phone on Monday (Jun 8). “I didn’t use much equipment. I did mostly bodyweight training, HIIT, and running, but dieting was the biggest contributing factor.”

Having to control his food intake proved to be a challenge when they were filming in Thailand. “We would get extremely hungry after swimming the whole day every day, but we still had to stick to our diets,” Gavin recalled. “The crew would prepare a lot of delicious home-cooked food but I had to force myself not to eat so much 'cos I had to stay in shape.”

Sounds tough, but at least all his hard work and discipline paid off. “That was the first time in my life that I acquired such a physique, and I was quite pleased with the result ‘cos before that, I never expected that I could’ve gotten there,” he said of his ripped new bod. “I was pretty buff when I was in NS but not really toned. Getting abs requires a lot more effort.”

Naturally, Gavin was raring to show off the fruits of his labour. “To be honest, going shirtless became pretty addictive!” he chuckled. “You can see there was a period of time when I really posted a lot of shirtless pictures. I thought, since I have this body now, I might as well take and post as many photos as I can in case I lose it, so at least I can tell people that there was a time when I looked like that. (Laughs)” (For the record, Gavin told us he still has a six-pack, although it’s not as prominent as before.)

While the sexy shots were met with a lot of ego-boosting positive comments and helped him gain a surge of new followers, they also attracted another kind of, um, attention. Thirsty fans — both male and female — started sliding into his DMs to send him explicit messages and photos of their private parts while asking to see his. He ignored them all, obviously.

“That only happened when I started sharing my shirtless pics. I guess a lot of people sexualise personalities who post pictures like that so I think it’s normal? It’s just that it was my first time experiencing it so it was a ‘culture shock’,” he said.

The number of lewd requests dwindled when Gavin stopped sharing pics of himself in a semi-nude state (“It came to a point where I realised I was sharing too much and had to chill,” he explained), but he reckons that he is better prepared for a resurgence after he starts releasing new ones to promote Victory Lap and as more people watch the show.

Still, we would recommend everyone to try and control themselves.

8 DAYS: What are some of the challenges you faced playing a swimmer in Victory Lap?
GAVIN TEO: We usually filmed in pools that were about 3m deep, and sometimes we had to stay in a certain position away from the edge while waiting for the camera to roll, so we had to constantly tread water. I’m not a regular swimmer and I’m not very good at treading water, so that was quite a scary experience.

Did you feel self-conscious going topless around the other guys?
I was at first. Zijie, Glenn, and Earth all had really good bodies even before the show, while I was at a negative starting point, but it never felt like there was any competition between us so eventually, I stopped feeling self-conscious.

Did any accidents happen on set?
I suffered a serious head injury during filming in Thailand. Basically, I hit my head on a ledge and came out of the pool covered in blood from a three-inch laceration on my scalp. I had to be rushed to the hospital and got five stitches.

Ouch! What happened, exactly?
So the pool has this side ledge that sticks out for people to hold on to when they’re at the edge. I was filming a scene where I had to jump into the water, sink to the bottom, and hold my breath for a few seconds before kicking myself up to the surface. However, when I was underwater, I wasn’t aware that I had backed up a few steps which meant that I was right under the ledge, so when I shot up, I hit my head.

At that moment, it didn’t feel like the impact was strong enough to give me a three-inch laceration. I thought that the worst I got was a bump, but when I got out of the pool, my head felt cold and everyone looked shocked, so I instantly became worried. It turns out that my head was covered in blood, so people quickly used towels to apply pressure on the wound and I was rushed to the hospital.

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A post shared by Gavin Teo 崇喆 (@gavinchongzhe) on Oct 25, 2019 at 5:01am PDT

How did that affect the rest of filming?
I actually returned to the set to continue filming that very same day. The only difference was that I had to keep my head out of the water to prevent the wound from getting infected, so I had to constantly tread water when I was in the pool or only film dialogue scenes. If there were scenes where I needed to be completely submerged, we would use a body double.

Wow. So you didn’t take medical leave?
I didn’t ‘cos the production required a lot of coordination so I wanted to try my best to ease the situation. I felt okay, though! The only troublesome thing was the dressing. Most people who hit their head like that would have the entire head wrapped up, but I just applied some medication and a small dressing that could still be covered by my hair a little, and the director had to make sure to avoid angles where it could be seen. Thankfully, we were already done with all the major scenes and were just left with a few minor shots.

Did your family know about your accident?
I didn’t dare to tell my mum until I got my dressing removed! She scolded me but I know for sure that if I were to tell her right away, she would’ve panicked and flown me back to Singapore. (Laughs) Fortunately, my wound healed very quickly after about a month and I no longer have to be very cautious about it.

The first six episodes of Victory Lap will be available on meWATCH for free on June 12.
All episodes will be available for free on June 19.
All episodes are now available for meWATCH Prime subscribers.

Photos: Gavin Teo/Instagram, Zong Zijie/Instagram, Mediacorp