Most Singaporeans will probably know of Yusof Ishak only as Singapore's first and thus far only Malay President (1965 to 1970), and also the dude who shows up on all our cash, but he was more than just that.

Yusof, who is a Malay of Sumatran descent, was a really good sportsman in his younger days. At Raffles Institution (RI), Yusof represented his school in hockey, cricket, swimming and water polo. But his sporting achievements went beyond school.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="768"] Yusof Ishak (1st from right). Source: NAS[/caption]

He also played tennis:

And table tennis:

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But wait, there's more:

According to Infopedia, Yusof was also a champion boxer, who won the 1932 Aw Boon Par Cup. (Random trivia: Aw is one of the Tiger Balm brothers.)

But it seems like the sport he truly excelled in most was weightlifting.

He was promising talent in the sport in 1931:

In early 1932, he was lightweight champion and runner-up in the middleweight categories of Singapore's annual amateur weight-lifting championship. That was held at the then-happening New World Arena, and organised by the Singapore Amateur Weight-lifters' Association:

Here's a bad picture of Yusof doing his lifting in 1932:

It seems like he did not defend his title in 1933 though, because he was helping out as a recorder.

That's one crazy fit President. Too bad he didn't compete for us internationally — who knows, he could've been one our earliest SEA Games, or even Olympic, medal winners.

Top image adapted from Julie V. via Flickr, Istana website, and NewspaperSG. 

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