Tan Howe Liang

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Tan Howe Liang (b. 5 May 1933, Swatow, Guangdong, China – ) holds the distinction of being Singapore’s first Olympic medallist, having won a silver in the lightweight category for weightlifting during the 1960 Games held at Rome. Up till 2008 – when the women’s table tennis team achieved silver – he was the only Singaporean athlete to have won an Olympic medal; and to date, he remains the only one to have won a medal in not only the Olympic Games but also the Commonwealth, Asian and South East Asian Peninsular (SEAP) games. Since his retirement from active competition, Tan has served as national weightlifting coach and has been employed by the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) as a gymnasium supervisor.

Early life
Tan was one of seven children born to a family in Swatow, China. In search of livelihood, his father brought the family to settle in Singapore when Tan was around the age of four. He was sent back to China a few years later to receive his early education and returned to Singapore to further his studies at Tuan Mong Secondary School, which he withdrew from after one year. Sports did not figure prominently in Tan’s early life. Although he had tried his hand at various sports while he was schooling, he was prevented from pursuing any of them as he had to help support his family.

Early weightlifting career
Tan’s first encounter with weightlifting was when he chanced upon a strongman competition at the Gay World Amusement Park (originally known as Happy World). Impressed by what he saw, he joined the Evergreen Weightlifting Party in 1952, working on his own and with only a single set of barbells. After just one year of intensive training, he was able to clinch the National Junior and Senior Weightlifting Championship titles for the lightweight division at the relatively late age of 20.

The following year, Tan was placed fourth at the Asian Games held in Manila, and in 1956 he participated for the first time in the Olympic Games held at Melbourne. Tan lost consciousness at one point during the Melbourne Olympics but returned to the competition and eventually finished in ninth place. At the Commonwealth and Empire Games of 1958, he broke his first world record by lifting 157 kg in the clean-and-jerk. He went on to clinch the gold at the Asian Games in that same year, and in 1959 obtained top honours at the First SEAP Games held in Bangkok.

Throughout much of his career, Tan faced a dearth of financial support and was forced to take on jobs aside from his regimen as a professional athlete. This was in order to meet personal expenses, as well as those incurred while competing overseas. As such, Tan has worked variously as an electrician, a store clerk and a dockworker in addition to other odd jobs.

The 1960 Olympic Games
Despite the lack of funding, Tan finished second among 33 contestants at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. The victory was a hard won 10.5-hour trial that did not begin well for Tan as he was faulted by the judges during two of the three competition lifts, the press and the snatch. He then suffered a cramp in both thighs before his attempt at the clean-and-jerk. Although the medical personnel assessed that he required complete rest, Tan and his manager Chua Tian Teck were unwilling to withdraw from the event. In what was termed a miracle by the press, the cramp in Tan’s legs began to ease half an hour before his turn and he went on to lift 155 kg at the clean-and-jerk, winning the silver medal with a total of 380 kg.

Tan’s Olympic feat did much to raise Singapore’s profile in the international community, though not before the Japanese flag was mistakenly hoisted in place of Singapore’s during the medal presentation ceremony. At the time, Japan was widely recognised as the eminent sporting powerhouse in Asia, hence the mistaken impression that Tan was a Japanese athlete. However, the error was corrected and the ceremony was repeated with the right flag.

For his achievement, Tan was presented with the Meritorious Service Medal at the National Day Awards of 1962. Today, the leotard and belt that Tan wore at the 1960 Olympics as well as his silver Olympic medal are on display at the SSC Museum.

Post-Olympics sporting career
In 1962, Tan competed for the first time in the middleweight category when he represented Singapore at the SEAP Games held in Rangoon (now known as Yangon) and clinched the gold medal. Following this win, he achieved another gold in the middleweight division at the Commonwealth Games held in Perth later that year.

Tan was appointed national weightlifting coach in 1968 and gradually retired from active competition. The last major overseas meets that he participated in included the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh where he finished in 10th place, and the Singapore-Malaysia Weightlifting Clash held at Ipoh in 1977.

As a coach, Tan continued to display the same drive and commitment, guiding his protégés Chua Koon Siong, Tung Chye Hong and Teo Yong Joo to medal wins at various international competitions such as the ASEAN Weightlifting Championship, the South East Asian (SEA) Games and the Commonwealth Games.

Tan also began working for the SSC as a gymnasium supervisor in 1982, first at the National Stadium and later in Bedok. It was at this gym in Bedok that he talent-spotted Jamie Wee, a 16-year-old who would later represent Singapore at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010.

Since 2011, he has partnered NTUC FairPrice as its Ambassador for Active Ageing to promote a healthy and active lifestyle among seniors.

Family
In 2010, it was reported in the news that Tan’s wife was undergoing treatment for cancer. To help his family cope with the financial strain, an anonymous donor stepped forward with a significant but undisclosed sum of money.

The couple have three children.

Major sporting achievements

Subject
Personalities>>Biographies
Tan Howe Liang, 1033-
Weight lifters--Singapore--Biography
Olympics--Records--Singapore--Biography
Sports, recreation and travel>>Olympic games