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Para-swimmer Benson Tan gets free rides courtesy of Joseph Schooling

8th ASEAN Para Games 2015 - OCBC Aquatic Centre, Singapore - 5/12/15 Swimming - Men's 100m Freestyle - S14 - Timed Final - Singapore’s Tan Eng Kiong Benson celebrates APG2015 Mandatory Credit: Sport Singapore / Action Images via Reuters Livepic
8th ASEAN Para Games 2015 - OCBC Aquatic Centre, Singapore - 5/12/15 Swimming - Men's 100m Freestyle - S14 - Timed Final - Singapore’s Tan Eng Kiong Benson celebrates APG2015 Mandatory Credit: Sport Singapore / Action Images via Reuters Livepic


When Joseph Schooling won a historic Olympic gold earlier last month, he was quickly inundated with offers of rewards from various companies.

One of those was Grab, the ride-hailing platform, which offered Schooling and his family free rides for a year.

But the 21-year-old has decided to instead gift those rides to two people, with one of them being local para-swimmer Benson Tan (pictured above). The other beneficiary is Ismail Akbar Abdullah, a 62-year-old blind masseur.

Tan, who was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at the age of five, is an accomplished swimmer who has won 11 ASEAN Para Games medals, seven of them gold, as well as a gold from the 2011 Special Olympics.

The 25-year-old trains up to 10 times a week. Tan will get $7,300 worth of free Grab rides, which consist of two rides per day over six months. The rides will help with Tan's commute from his Pasir Ris home to his training venue at Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) at Barker Road.

When contacted by Yahoo Singapore, Schooling said, “When I was told of this offer, I wanted to give it to someone that will need it more than I do, especially an athlete. Sometimes after training, you feel tired and would like to go back and rest as fast as you can. I hope with this, it will help Benson in his quest to be a top Para athlete.”

Tan's mother, Mimi Tan, who was told about the offer earlier this week, is grateful for Schooling’s gesture.

“I'm very thankful to Jo because this helps us to defray our transportation costs, especially when he has night training and gets back late [if he takes public transport],” she told Yahoo Singapore. “He knows Joseph… [and] Joseph knows Benson - when he came back some time ago, he trained at Swimfast [at ACS] and he’s trained together with Benson.”

She added that her son, who works part-time as a sales assistant four times weekly, regards Schooling as an inspiration.

Hafidz Ja’afar, the official representative of the Schooling family, told Yahoo Singapore that the Olympic champion decided to share the Grab reward as National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules meant that the University of Texas student was not eligible to receive benefits.

“We contacted them (Grab), told them about his NCAA status… and we then proposed that we share it with someone who needs it more than Joseph,” he said.

“We picked a non-sports and sports beneficiary - for the sports one we went to Benson. He doesn’t get funding and has to travel quite a bit, so we thought we can help him.”

The sponsorship takes effect immediately, said Grab.