Background and career
Tan Wee Kiong (simplified Chinese: 陈蔚强; traditional Chinese: 陳蔚強; pinyin: Chén Wèiqiáng, born 21 May 1989) is a Malaysian badminton player. An Olympic silver medalist, two-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist, two-time Asian Games bronze medalist and former world number one, he and his former partner Goh V Shem won the men's doubles silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They are the first and only Malaysian athletes in Olympic history to have held not just one, but two gold medal points, at 20–19 and 21–20 in the deciding game of the badminton men's doubles final at the 2016 Rio Olympics, placing them just one point away from winning the nation's first Olympic gold medal and making them the Malaysian athletes who have come closest to achieving the historic feat of becoming the first ever Olympic gold medalists of Malaysia, even closer than the legendary three-time Olympic silver medalist Lee Chong Wei, who won three Olympic silver medals but never reached a gold medal point. They also became the first Malaysian men's doubles pair to reach an Olympic final since Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock in 1996. Together, Tan and Goh reached the world number one ranking on 7 November 2016, becoming the fifth Malaysian men's doubles pair to achieve the ranking.
Tan won two gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, securing the men's doubles title with Goh and contributing to Malaysia's victory in the mixed team event. He also won bronze medals in men's doubles and the men's team event at the 2014 Asian Games. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, he added a mixed team silver medal and a men's doubles bronze medal. In team competitions, Tan helped Malaysia win silver at the 2014 Thomas Cup and bronze at the 2016 Thomas Cup, as well as a men's team bronze medal at the 2018 Badminton Asia Team Championships.
Together with Goh, Tan won the 2016 Denmark Open, their first BWF Superseries title, and the 2016 Dubai World Superseries Finals, defeating Japan's Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda in the final. They also won the 2015 U.S. Open, 2016 Syed Modi International, 2019 Thailand Masters and 2019 Taipei Open, and finished runners-up at the 2020 Thailand Open, a BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament.
During his junior career, Tan won two gold medals at the 2007 Badminton Asia Junior Championships, in mixed doubles with Woon Khe Wei and in the mixed team competition. He also won silver medals in boys' doubles and mixed doubles at the Asian Junior Championships. After his partnership with Goh ended in 2021, Tan competed with several other partners, including Tan Kian Meng and Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub. With Azriyn, he reached a highest world ranking of number 23 on 11 March 2025.
