PENANG: Every time the Olympic Games is held, coffeshop owner Fong Seow Hoo would reminisce fondly on his participation in the Games over 50 years ago.
“Like many sportsmen, an athlete’s ultimate aim is the Olympics,” said 71-year-old Fong who was Penang’s first swimmer to participate in the Games in Melbourne in 1956. He was 19 then.
Fong, who runs the popular Zealand Bak Kut Teh and Seafood Restaurant in Gurney Drive, had the privilege of participating twice in the Games.
His second stint was in Rome in 1960 together with his younger brother Seow Jit.
World-class competitors: Fong (right) posing for a photograph with a Japanese athlete during the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. “Although I was outclassed in the competition, to be able to take part and compete against some of the best swimmers in the world was already a great achievement,” said Fong, who took part in the 200m butterfly event and represented then Federation of Malaya.
The grandfather of five can still vividly recall swimming along Lane 7, with some of the world’s best swimmers in 1956, a year before the country achieved independence.
“I just could not match the Australian and Japanese swimmers. I was booted out in the heat in both Games,” he said when met at the Penang Swimming Club where he goes for his daily swim.
Fong, who clocked a personal best of two minutes 55 seconds then quipped that nowadays, even a 10-year-old boy could register a better time than his in the 200m butterfly.
“Times have changed and our record was nowhere near the standard now. International swimmers now can complete the distance in less than two minutes,” said Fong, who is popularly known as Ah Hor (Tiger in Hokkien) to his friends and customers.
Fong added that the 20-odd member contingent for the 1956 Games was considered a ‘token team’ as the Federation of Malaya Olympics Council did not expect them to win any medal.
Keeping fit: Fong at the Penang Swimming Club where he goes for his daily swim. “We were there to keep the flag flying and were each given a set of tracksuit, a coat, swimming trunks, food and lodging,” he added.
After seven years of competitive swimming, Fong called it a day in 1962.
He had two Olympics Games under his belt, and was also part of the team that went to the inaugural 1959 SEAP Games in Bangkok, Thailand.
“My only regret was 'missing in action' from the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo, Japan. If not, I would have participated in almost all the major sport meets,” he said.
He then worked as a sales executive for a tobacco firm for 19 years before starting his own bak kut teh business in 1981.
His son Albert Fong, 42, helps to run the business now.
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