Sam Tan

Archery career In late 1974, Tan took up archery on the suggestion of Archery Association of Singapore (AAS) secretary Steven Tan (no relation), after being in a self-described "lost" and "lonely" part of her life. He brought her to the archery club at YMCA and had her practice archery; she soon developed an interest in the sport. In March 1975, she participated in her first competition at the Bangkok Indoor Shoot, where she won a bronze medal. In 1977, she was among those selected by the AAS to train at the National University of Singapore's archery range ahead of the 1977 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, along with partaking in a trial to identify the archers that would be selected. During this period of training, the AAS was invited to some friendly matches in Indonesia, which they accepted. Tan was a part of the delegation that went to Jakarta, Indonesia.

In October 1977, the AAS held the trials to determine their SEA Games delegation, and Tan was recommended to the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC), alongside four male archers and three female archers. At the 1977 SEA Games, she won five silvers in the women's individual, women's 60m, women's 50m, women's 30m, and women's team archery events. She also broke Singapore's record in the women's individual event by scoring 1,167, beating Laura de Rozario's 1,082. Tan was popularly known as the "Silver Lady" for her performance, and was awarded the Meritorious Award by the SNOC. She was predicted by Godfrey Robert of The Straits Times to win a bronze, but did not attain any medals. New Nation 's Brian Miller and Philip Tan attributed the archery team's lack of success to being "outclassed" among the other Asian archers. At the 1979 SEA Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, she was considered a possible gold medalist by Joe Dorai of The Straits Times; she won a silver and a bronze. among other instances, she had missed the flight to Jakarta during the 1979 SEA Games and the closing ceremony bus at the 1978 Asian Games. As a result, she was unable to compete at the 1980 Asian Archery Championships or the 1980 Summer Olympics.

Tan stated of the ban to Her World that "I still have not decided whether to appealit is like admitting you are wrongor to drop archery altogether." In March, it was reported that she was teaching archery. She said to New Nation that she "[missed] competitive archery terribly" but was unsure if she would return to the sport after the ban. She subsequently competed at the 1983 SEA Games held in Singapore, where she managed to win two golds and one silver, becoming the first Singaporean to win a gold medal in archery at the SEA Games. She stated of her gold win, "At last we can hear the 'Majulah Singapura' at the archery range."

In October 1983, Tan participated at the 1983 World Archery Championships in Los Angeles, United States, where she gained 2294 points, placing 69th. In April 1984, she was a part of the Singapore delegation sent to participate in the International Invitational Friendly Shoot in Guangxi, China. It also saw athletes from Russia, Poland, Italy, Mongolia, North Korea, and Thailand participating. She also received the Meritorious Award by the SNOC in 1984 for her performance at the 1983 SEA Games. In May, a nine-member committee of the AAS announced their decision to ban her for two years for misconduct. Wee said that the committee had originally planned for a three-year ban, but decided on two years instead. Tan said she would not appeal the ban and subsequently retired. She died on 23 August 1992, aged 44, after 16 months of battling cancer, and had been working as a magazine manager at the time. She was cremated at Mount Vernon Columbarium. In response to her death, Wee stated, "We haven't found anyone to match Sam. She had the heart of the lion. She was the greatest lady archer Singapore has produced."