After a dismal 2021, Schooling is back on the comeback trail

It was like a walk down Memory Lane. Nineteen years ago, this reporter conducted his first interview with Joseph Schooling at Tanah Merah Country Club’s (TMCC) when he was a chubby 7-year-old.

Innocent with his answers, ignorant of what the future held and innocuous with his remarks, he fervently believed in one prognosis from his first coach Vincent Poon: that swimming would eventually take him places.

That statement of intent was also drummed into him by his doting parents Colin and May, who were mindful that they had a precious and precocious kid who was way ahead of his peers in the pool.

That day in 2003, dripping in water after clambering out of the 25-metre TMCC pool and while towelling down, Schooling flashed his buck-toothed smile after beating his older competitors over 2 laps despite conceding a 10-second headstart.

After a short chit-chat, he whispered to me: “Uncle, when are you going to write about me in the newspaper?”

A month later, his wish came true – this time well-groomed and wearing a colourful shirt – he met me for an interview for an article that was published in the now-defunct Streats newspaper.

On Saturday (Apr 23), the local media gathered once again to meet Schooling for interviews, ahead of his preparations for next month’s SEA Games in Hanoi and the Asian Games in September.

In the nearly 2 decades since I first spoke to him, Schooling has gone on to become a world champion with his historic gold medal in the butterfly event at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

After that stunning result, the New York Times ran an article with the headline, “Somebody (his name is Joseph Schooling) finally beats Michael Phelps”, in reference to the American who is the most decorated Olympian of all time with 23 gold medals.

Last year’s Tokyo Games was a disaster for Schooling as he failed to even make it past the heats in his title defence.

In fact, 2021 pushed him to an uneasy corner to the point that he considered retiring from the sport with which he put Singapore on the global sports map and personally won worldwide acclaim – evident last Saturday when a group of 6 girls approached him for photographs and many other onlookers offered him greetings.

The Tokyo debacle aside, he suffered from scoliosis (a spinal injury that his family feared could have left him paralysed), lost his dad through cancer and harboured concerns over his impending National Service (NS) enlistment.

Having overcome the injury, he has come to terms with the other setbacks, but juggling his NS commitments at Changi Naval Base with his swimming commitments have proven to be difficult and often left him frustrated.

For the past 2 months, he has trained twice a day with a short Saturday recovery programme at the TMCC pool.

“I wish I could use my time more usefully,” lamented Joseph who endures a tiring regimen week in, week out as he stays focused on his goals for the SEA Games and Asian Games.

“My priorities are my goals in the pool. If it has to be a sacrifice on my social life for a few months, so be it. It’s tiring and tough, it can be stressful. But I’ve been going through the pace because feel that I have a couple more years of good swimming left in me,” he said.

At the recent Singapore National Age-Group Championships, he showed that he is bouncing back to form with timings of 23.78 sec in the 50-metre butterfly and 52.09 secs in the 100 m butterfly – the latter timing more than a second faster than his Tokyo showing.

Unlike in the US state of Virginia, where he visited for a short period after the Olympics last year to meet his longtime coach Sergio Lopez, Schooling finds Singapore conducive in many aspects to help achieve his targets.

“I am not a rural boy. I love food, but I am not a good cook. In Virginia, I relied mostly on steak and pasta, the only two dishes I can prepare. Here, I enjoy the local food. I enjoy city life. Most of all, I’m close to my mum, my main pillar of strength,” he said.

The strapping man who is about to turn 27 in June is no more the “little boy of 2003” on whom many placed big ambitions on his tiny shoulders.

He is practical, mature, sensible, obliging and maintains the posture of a good role model. He added: “I’m emotionally invested in sports so I know my obligations. Right now, I feel good so I’ll just keep on going.”