SINGAPORE: In the absence of context, observing Ben Tan’s talk could possibly lead you to conclude that he is a masochist.
The president of the Singapore Sailing Federation believes firmly in the electricity of trouble.
“I am probably in soft surroundings, but I create the hassle for myself. Hardship affords drive. If I’ve got money to spend on lunch, it doesn’t mean I’ve been given to finish it. I was faux that I was terrible. I fake that I can’t afford a better boat. I make do with vintage sails. I push myself. So, I create that hardship because that ultimately makes me stronger. This is one of the keys to his fulfillment as an Asian Games and 4-time consecutive Southeast Asian (SEA) Games Gold medalist.
Dr. Tan is likewise a Hall-of-Famer and 3-time Singapore Sportsman of the Year.
After competing in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he retired from competitive cruising. He now kiteboards and runs marathons recreationally. He has competed in twenty marathons thus far, along with all six World Marathon Majors, and is an ordinary scuba diver and (snow) skier. Aside from excelling in the sporting world, he also made it a part of his lifestyle work to excel in the remedy.
He is the Chief of Sports Medicine at Changi General Hospital. He shows up for this interview looking the part, sporting a white shirt and tie, and points out he has an appointment with a patient straight after.
His motives for going into the medicinal drug are rooted in his early publicity of sailing.
“A lot of humans anticipate I went into remedy because anyone near me had an unlucky dying, and I felt that I needed to move into a medicinal drug to store lives. But my story is extraordinary. I needed to learn about aerodynamics, meteorology, hydrodynamics, etc. To be correct, filing and my physics have certainly become desirable. I knew that I had become oriented towards the sciences. When choosing a university course, I chose the one with the most sciences – remedy.”
He appears pleased with the fact that he’s naturally very common sense-oriented.
“That’s just the way my brain works, and medication gave me that project. Why might a tennis elbow take goodbye to heal? What’s the physiology at the back of it? What’s the pathology at the back of it?” How he managed to attain all this has been defined as splendid by a few in the sports activities fraternity. It required almost surgical compartmentalization and forgoing amusement or even rest for many years of his life. While he was in clinical faculty, it changed into the norm to weigh, class, and then train each day till 10 pm. This would leave little time for his research, but he made up for it by staying up till 2 am.
Talent is something you may do anything about. I appreciate my warring parties and always anticipate that they’re more talented. Therefore, I’ve got to compensate for more hours and more efficiency.” I kept logbooks. I could squeeze each minute out of that schooling time. Medicine, in reality, made me a better sailor as it pressured me to educate effectively. The other way is natural also. Sailing compelled me to be a higher doctor.” He claims it also helped him develop the discipline to do well in faculty in widespread. From nearly failing his PSLE, he made it to one of the top JCs in Singapore due to it.
