Tan Howe Liang

Tan Howe Liang, nicknamed "Tiger" (b. 1933, China - ) is the first Singaporean ever to have won a medal in the Olympic Games. He won the silver medal in the weightlifting event, under the men's lightweight (60-67.5 kg) category on 8 September 1960 at the Palazetto Dello Sport Hall in Rome during the 1960 Olympics when he was 27 years old. Tan also broke the oldest-standing world record in the lightweight frame in the clean-and-jerk in 1958.

The leotard and belt which Tan wore during his 10.5 hours gruelling feat are now on display in a glass case in the Singapore Sports Council Museum.

After his win, the former mechanic with only a secondary one education also tried to run a restaurant business, which was unsuccessful and later became a taxi-driver for a short stint, before he was became a weight-lifting coach in 1974. After his retirement from competition, he was hired as a gym supervisor by the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) at the Kallang Family ClubFitt in November 1982.

Up until 1999, Mr. Tan continued to cycle to work daily, six days a week. He lives in a three-room HDB flat in Jalan Batu together with his wife and daughter.

Nominations and awards
1984 : the first weightlifter in the world to be awarded the International Weightlifting Federation (national honour) Gold Award.
1958 : Asian Games Gold and Commonwealth Games Gold for weightlifting (lightweights).
1962 : Commonwealth Games Gold for weightlifting (lightweights).
26 Jun 1996 : launch of a commemorative medallion set by the Singapore Mint to celebrate the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. It features Tan one side of the medallion, showing him getting ready to lift weights. When the angle of the image is tilted, the picture shows him having lifted the weights. Izzy, the official mascot of the Atlanta Olympics are shown in a three-dimensional image on the other side of the medallion.
Sep 1997 : Tan received a lifetime ClubFITT membership in conjunction with the launch of the ClubFITT programme by The Singapore Sports Council (SSC).
Dec 1999 : Tan was nominated for the "Spirit of the Century" award. Ms Susan Lim was the eventual winner of this contest.
1999 : Nominated for the Singapore's Greatest Athlete award but conceded the award to former badminton champ, four-time All-England badminton champion in the 1950s, Wong Peng Soon. Tan was also featured in Time sport's "Millennium' series on Singapore sporting greats in 1999.
2000 : McDonalds sponsored Tan Howe Liang's trip to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he joined the Singapore contingent and attended the weightlifting competition. McDonalds' also donated $ 10,000 with the aim to help revive the sport of weightlifting in Singapore. McDonalds also featured a two-minute special television commercial, titled "We Can Do It", featuring his silver medal-winning feat at the 1960 Rome Olympics. The commercial re-creates the different aspects of Tan's life, from childhood to his triumph at the Rome Olympics.



Author
Sharon Teng



References 
Low, J. (2000, August 5). Back to the Games for strongman. The Straits Times, Sports, p. 64.

Tan, A. (1999, December 24). Tan Howe Liang: Modesty is the name of his game. The Business Times (Singapore), p. 2.

Coin set features Olympic medallist. (1996, June 27). The Straits Times, Home, p. 44. 

Oh no, not me again. (1992, July 26). The Sunday Times, Life!, p. 21. 

International Olympic Committee website. (2002). Olympic medal winners. Retrieved May 21, 2002, from www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/results/search_r_uk.asp 



The information in this article is valid as at 2002 and correct as far as we can ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

Subject
Recreation>>Sports
Personalities>>Biographies
Weight lifters--Singapore
Olympics--Records--Singapore
Sports, recreation and travel>>Olympic games

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