Chan Ah Kow (陈亚九, 1912 – 10 March 1996) was a Singaporean swimming coach.

Family

Chan was noted for his experimental training methods; though he had little swimming experience himself, he trained his children extensively, helping them go on to dominate swimming in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and 1970s. In particular, his youngest daughter Patricia Chan Li-yin would earn numerous gold medals for Singapore at the Southeast Asian Games, earning her the moniker "Singapore's Golden Girl". Another daughter of his, Victoria Lye-hua Chan-Palay, went on to prominence as a neuroscientist in the United States and Switzerland. His son Roy Chan Kum Wah attended the Anglo-Chinese School, where aside from distinction in swimming (he was part of the men's 4 × 200 m relay team that won a bronze medal at the

1970 Asian Games The 6th Asian Games () were held from 9 to 20 December 1970 in Bangkok, Thailand.- - Seoul, South Korea, had been selected to host the 6th Games but it declined due to both financial reasons and security threats from neighboring North Korea. (T ...

) he also achieved excellent academic results, earning him a

President's Scholarship A President's Scholar is a recipient of the academic scholarship awarded by the Government of Singapore annually, to pursue undergraduate education at a university, usually abroad. The scholarship is considered to be the most prestigious public ...

. Two other sons Alex Chan Meng Wah and Bernard Chan Cheng Wah were also swimmers, the latter representing Singapore at the

1966 Asian Games The 1966 Asian Games (), also known as the V Asiad, were a continental multi-sport event that was held from 9 to 20 December 1966, in Bangkok, Thailand. A total of 142 events in 16 sports were contested by athletes during the games. Taiwan and Isr ...

. The other son

Mark Chan Mark Chan (born 1958) is a Singaporean composer, recording artist, singer, instrumentalist, poet, and painter. He studied fine arts at the Edinburgh College of Art

later became a composer. One of his granddaughters

Marina Chan Marina Chan (born Nur Marina Chan Si Min Alif Abdullah; 24 December 1997) is a Singaporean freestyle and butterfly swimmer. Hailing from a prominent swimming family, Chan only took up the sport in her first year of high school. She has represen ...

is also an international swimmer. Chan was jointly awarded the Singapore National Olympic Council's first coach of the year award when it was instituted in 1970, along with Tan Eng Yoon and Ang Teck Bee; he would go on to receive it again as sole winner in 1971 and 1972.

House

Chan moved into a villa on of land in Mountbatten Road in the 1940s, and raised his family there. It was a local landmark known as the "Chan Villa". The Urban Development Authority gave it conservation status in 1993. After Chan's death, his family sold the property to

Simon Cheong Simon Cheong Sae Peng (; born ) is a Singaporean businessman. He was ranked by ''Forbes'' as the 44th richest man in Singapore in 2016. He is the founder of the property developer SC Global Developments Company. Cheong was ranked the 22nd riches ...

of SC Global Development in 2004 for SG$11 million.

Family

House

References

Further reading