[1] When she was 14 years old, Chai won a silver in the high jump event of the 1967 Southeast Asian Games.

[2] The following year, she represented Malaysia in the women's pentathlon event of 1972 Summer Olympics but was forced to retire because of an injury.

[2] She finished in the ninth place at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games's women's high jump event and bagged another gold medal in the high jump event of 1979 Southeast Asian Games.

[2][3] Later she became a sports photographer and was awarded the German Athletics Association's Media Prize in 2016 after more than twenty years of her work in this profession.

[1] Chai married a West German sports journalist Rolf von der Laage [de].