The future for Joseph Schooling

Our Olympic Gold medalist, Joseph Schooling, will be returning to America. He is likely to stay there and make his career as a sports professional.

Many Singaporeans understand and agree with his decision. Joseph and his parents have made tremendous financial and personal sacrifices to bring the coveted Olympic Gold medal to Singapore. The state did almost nothing to support him in this humongous effort. There is no future for sports professionals in Singapore. He has to plan for his future, which must lie in America.

Wait! There is an alternative.

Suppose, Singapore engages him to set up the Schooling School of Swimming (SSS), modelled along the Bolles School in Florida. This is the school that had trained Joseph to win the Olympic Gold. Joseph had trained in that school for several years. He knows the entire training regime inside out. He must have also observed how the training regime impact not only him but the other students in his cohort.

Joseph is most qualified to be the founder and chief trainer of this new school. Singapore can put a few tens of million dollars into this venture. Who can be more qualified that to train our future swimmers than a local and Olympic Gold medalist?

Singapore has a future in swimming. Over the past decades,  we have produced medal winning swimmers in various international events. Swimming is one of the few sports that Singapore can excel in. It is largely an individual sport. It does not require many participants to form a team.

The future swimmers have to be trained from a young age. A young trainer, like Joseph, is more likely to relate to these youngsters than an older guy.

Furthermore, one does not need to be a business or engineering graduate to be an sports professional. Joseph can puruse his degree, but it has to be in the field of sports.

I hope that our minister for sports will consider this suggest and take a bold step to reach out to Joseph Schooling.