Benedict Tan Chi’ Loong

Benedict Tan

Attended Eunos Primary School, Ghim Moh Secondary School, and later Hwa Chong Junior College. At Ghim Moh Secondary, Tan was a school prefect, class monitor, captain of the badminton team and a member of the National Cadet Corps. Tan initially wanted to study ophthalmology but his abiding interest lay in sports medicine; Pursued medicine at the National University of Singapore before obtaining a Master’s degree in Sports Medicine from the Australian Institute of Sport

With funding from private sponsors and the Singapore Sports Council, Tan embarked on training stints in Europe and the United States, improving his skills by exchanging knowledge with experienced sailors. His training partners included American champion Nick Adamson, three-time world champion Glenn Bourke of Australia, and British sailor Gareth Kelly; 1989 - Won his first SEA Games gold medal in 1989 in Kuala Lumpur. In the same year, he finished 37th out of 104 at the World Laser Championships in Denmark, the second-best showing by an Asian. In 1991, he won his second gold medal at the SEA games held in Manila, and was named Singapore’s Sportsman of the Year. The following year, Tan has conferred the Public Service Medal for his sporting achievements. Juggling sailing with his medical studies, Tan’s dedication to the sport was apparent as he would attend university lectures in the morning, train at sea for five hours from the afternoon to evening, then work out at the gymnasium at night before hitting the books; 1994 - 1995 The medals and accolades continued to arrive as Tan picked up his third SEA Games gold medal on home waters in 1993, and his fourth and last gold at the games held in Chiangmai, Thailand, in 1995. He has crowned Sportsman of the Year two more times, for 1994 and 1995. Tan also received the Singapore Youth Award and Public Service Star in 1995; 1994 - The highlight of Tan’s sailing career was in 1994, when he bagged the Asian Games gold medal in the Laser class in Hiroshima. He was Singapore’s first gold medallist at the Asian Games since 1982, earning a cash award of S$250,000 from the Singapore National Olympic Council; 1998 - 2003 Olympic Games in Atlanta where he placed 36th of 56 boats, Tan retired from competitive sailing to study for his master’s degree in sports medicine at the Australian Institute of Sport, and to make way for younger sailors. However, he continued to be active in the sailing arena, serving as the national team’s doctor at the 1998 and 2002 Asian Games, and assisting the Singapore Sailing Federation in setting up a high-performance committee to train athletes. Tan also served on the Singapore National Olympic Council and was inducted into the Singapore Sports Council Hall of Fame; 2003 - Embarked on his medical career at the Changi Sports Medicine Centre (CSMC) of Changi General Hospital; The first doctor to practise sports medicine in a local restructured hospital, and became head and senior consultant of the CSMC as well as medical director of the Singapore Sports Medicine Centre. He continued to sail for pleasure, and took part in marathons; Tan also authored several books, including one titled The Complete Guide to Laser Sailing. Published in 2000, the book is widely acknowledged as a definitive guide to the sport internationally; 2010 - Tan succeeded Low Teo Ping as president of the Singapore Sailing Federation; Nominated for the post by five of the federation’s nine affiliate clubs, and was the sole nominee. Under Tan’s leadership, a meritocratic system of using open trials to select sailors for tournaments was introduced at the federation, replacing the previous process of having the athletes hand-picked by coaches; Also formed an Olympic Pathway Taskforce to groom sailors in more Olympic sailing classes and reduce the number of young sailors dropping out of the sport. In addition, he started a national keelboat racing league and rotated the racing circuit around various clubs to expose sailors to different conditions

English, Mandarin

Information available only in printed publication available in libraries.

Information available only in printed publication available in libraries.