On 18 June 2001 at the SEA Games Time Trials in the 200 Meters
Backstroke he came in at 2:05.07 which is a record in Singapore. On 7 December 2003 at the 22nd
SEA Games in
Hanoi, Vietnam, Gary won the bronze medal in the Men 200 Meters
Medley with the time of 2:05.94 which is a record in Singapore. On 24 June 2005 at the 1st
Singapore National Swimming Championship, he won the Men 200 Meters
Butterfly with the time of 2:04.00 which is a record in Singapore.
Coaching Tan formerly worked at Swimfast Aquatic Club as a coach and also a director at Swimlab. He was also the head coach of the Phoenix Swim Team, which represents
UWCSEA (United World College of South East Asia) Dover. In 2011, Tan was suspended for a year for consideration for national coach accreditation after assisting a swimmer, Jeffrey Su, from Swimfast Aquatic Club to be
absent without official leave when Su was supposed to be at
Singapore Sports Council's
physiotherapy and recovery sessions. In 2014, he was named as assistant coach to Singapore's national swimming team and appointed to be the national coach in 2016 after the former national coach, Sergio Lopez, left after the
2016 Summer Olympics at
Rio de Janeiro. He was named Coach of the Year at the 2018 Singapore Sports Awards, at that time the fourth year in a row that a swimming coach had taken the award. == Education ==