Asian Games profile: The swimmer who won’t stop

An ancient Chinese tale tells of a race among animals, with the sequence they finished determining the 12-year zodiac cycle’s order. First came the rat, then ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. At the Sept 23-Oct 8 Asian Games in Hangzhou, Singapore’s 431-strong contingent will also be racing for honours. The Straits Times features 12 athletes, each corresponding to one of the animals of the Chinese zodiac. In the seventh profile of the series, Rohit Brijnath chats with swimmer Jonathan Tan.

Do you know when you’re swimming fast?

There are a few signs. If I am catching the water and if I am feeling the water. If I’m not that tired, that kind of feeling. But some of my best races I actually didn’t know that I would hit that time. For my SEA Games 50m freestyle it happened faster than I could process.

What’s been the toughest part of balancing national service and swimming?

To stay motivated continuously. It’s like you build yourself up to a certain level and then something hits me. One instance was when I had to go to Thailand for three weeks for NS, an overseas exercise, so that drops you down again. So it’s like on and off, where I worked so hard to hit a certain level and then dropped back. So it’s up and down movements which are quite irritating... and I feel like being motivated to keep doing that over and over is the toughest part.

For the last Olympics you missed qualification by .1 of a second. How did you deal with that?

At first I was very sad. I actually had two tries. The first try in the morning I missed by .1. The second try was at night. I swam twice at night, one by myself, where I hit the same time again. So it was quite sad. I actually deferred my NS by eight months just to have a shot at it. So I came out of the pool thinking, ‘Oh, I wasted these eight months’. But after a while after speaking to my family, my coaches, my friends, it was worth a shot. If I didn’t take it, I wouldn’t have known that I would have missed. That helped me to move forward in a sense where I didn’t want to feel like that again. 

Did you cry?

Yah, I teared a bit.

What’s the single hardest set you’ve done?

(It) was under Sonya (Porter, Singapore Aquatics’ swimming technical director). When I first came to the National Training Centre, my first Saturday training we did 8 x 800m. It was descending in a sense where in the first 800m, the last 100 will be a max effort. And the second one, the last 200 is the max effort. So it goes all the way to the last one where the last 800 will just be... hang on for dear life (laughs).

With you, is the person and the swimmer the same?

I would like to think so. I guess I’m a happy-go-lucky kind of person. If I set my mind on something, I will go all out for it... In any aspect, studies or swimming, I always believed to be different from others you have to do something different from others. So whether it’s putting in more hours of training, whether it’s doing more work, whether it’s sacrificing good times with friends and doing what I got to do outside the pool to swim faster... those are aspects that I am willing to sacrifice.

So what do you love about competition?

The rush. And of course if I do well then I know that my hard work has paid off.

How has sport changed you?

In many aspects it has humbled me. It has taught me that good things don’t come easily. You have to work for whatever you want. You have to go out there and get it and not wait for someone to show you the way. To have the initiative to try to find ways to improve.

What’s more upsetting, the fact that you lost a race or you didn’t hit the time you wanted?

My main goal in every race is always to have a PB. Even if I win and don’t have a PB I will feel a bit off.

What is the one thing that people don’t understand about swimming?

In relation to my recent experience I think it is like doing NS... If you’re out of the water for maybe two-three days, mostly people think that, oh, it’s just two-three days, it won’t affect you that much. But to us two-three days can be quite a huge impact where you lose your water feel.

Can you explain to people what water feel is?

It’s basically the feeling of being good in the water, where like you can feel the pressure in your hands, the pressure in your feet, how you glide through the water.

What has to be in place physically and mentally for you to produce a good performance?

Mentally I guess it’s enjoying the sport. I like being the underdog sometimes. Having the feeling of competing with people that are faster than you. Then you have no expectations.

In what way do you feel like your zodiac animal – the horse?

I guess I won’t stop. No matter what happens. If I have a certain goal ahead of me and something that I want to achieve, I wouldn’t stop until I get it.

Factfile

Name: Jonathan Tan
Age: 21
Asian Games events: 50m and 100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay, 4x100m mixed medley relay
Achievements: SEA Games 50m freestyle gold (2019

and 2023

); SEA Games 100m freestyle gold (2023); Asian Games 4x100m and 4x200m free relay bronze (2018)