SINGAPORE: Weightlifter Tan Howe Liang, Singapore’s first Olympic medallist, died on Tuesday (Dec 3) at the age of 91.
Tan won a silver medal at the 1960 Rome Games, making him Singapore’s only Olympic medallist for almost half a century.
It would not be until 2008 in Beijing when Singapore’s women’s table tennis team – Feng Tianwei, Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu – would win the country’s next Olympic medals.
“(Tan) was a sportsman born ahead of his time, chasing sporting glory at a time when a pre-independent, third-world Singapore paid little attention to anything other than economic progress,” read an obituary by the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC).
Born in the Chinese city of Swatow in 1933, Tan emigrated to Singapore with his family when he was four.
He became interested in weightlifting after witnessing a strongman competition, and started training seriously in 1952.
Tan broke the clean and jerk world record at the 1958 Commonwealth Games before winning gold at the Asian and Southeast Asian Peninsular (SEAP) Games in 1959.
Following his 1960 Olympic feat, Tan would go on to win gold at the 1962 Perth Commonwealth Games.
However, he would ultimately retire after failing to repeat his performance at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
“Howe Liang’s achievement has inspired many generations of Singaporeans,” said SNOC president Grace Fu, who is also the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment
“Athletes of his generation had much lesser, but they accepted what they had and trained hard. His achievement in Rome goes to show what one can achieve, if one simply devotes himself to it.”
