Joseph Schooling out of Hangzhou Asian Games

SINGAPORE – Singapore will be sending its largest contingent of 431 athletes to the Sept 23-Oct 8 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, but one name will be missing: three-time Asiad gold medallist Joseph Schooling.

The Olympic champion’s name was a glaring omission from the team that was announced after the Games’ flag presentation ceremony on Saturday.

At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, two of Singapore’s four golds came from Schooling, in the 50m and 100m butterfly, with sailing and contract bridge delivering one each. The Republic finished 18th in the medal table with 22 medals (four gold, four silver, 14 bronzes).

The 28-year-old, who made his Asian Games debut in 2014, has collected three gold, one silver and three bronze medals over the past two editions of the quadrennial competition.

In a statement, Schooling said: “While I will not be participating, I wish the contingent the best at the Asian Games and to do Singapore proud.

“The status of my training and competition remains the same. More details of my future will be shared in due course.”

Schooling had qualified for the 50m and 100m fly, and the 100m freestyle, as well as two relays for this year’s Asiad. He was named in the initial list of Hangzhou-bound athletes that was released in April 2022, although Singapore Aquatics still had to select the final two representatives for each event.

In response to queries from The Straits Times, the national sports association said selection for the Asian Games is based on swimmers clocking the fastest times during the qualification window, which was extended from April 2022 to May 2023 owing to the postponement of the event. The Asiad was delayed by a year because of the pandemic.

It noted: “At the end of the extended window, two swimmers emerged ahead of Joseph on the back of faster times clocked during the selection window.”

In Hangzhou, Singapore will be represented by Teong Tzen Wei and Mikkel Lee in the men’s 50m fly, and Teong and Quah Zheng Wen in the men’s 100m fly. While not confirmed, Quah and Jonathan Tan could go in the men’s 100m free.

This comes after a challenging past few years for Schooling, whose last meet was

the Hanoi South-east Asian Games in May 2022.

There, he won two golds in the 100m fly and medley relay.

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Schooling did not retain his 100m fly title after failing to qualify for the semi-finals. His father Colin died a few months later after battling liver cancer.

Schooling, who enlisted for national service (NS) in January 2022, missed the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and

did not travel to Phnom Penh for the 2023 SEA Games in May.

He was embroiled in a drug controversy in 2022,

after he and fellow swimmers Teong Tzen Wei and Amanda Lim admitted to consuming cannabis.

Following the incident, the Ministry of Defence said that given his abuse of disruption privileges, Schooling will

no longer be eligible for leave or disruption to train or compete while in NS.

Acknowledging Schooling’s contributions over the years, Team Singapore chef-de-mission for the Hangzhou Games Koh Koon Teck said: “I’m also sure the association has put together a very good plan.

“For a swimmer going this time around with the team, they will definitely do the best they can and achieve the targets they’ve set.”

Mr Koh, who is president of the Basketball Association of Singapore, was coy about specific targets for the contingent and declined to name potential medal prospects, stressing that the goal was for athletes to meet their personal targets and showcase what they can do on the continental stage.

Speaking at the flag presentation ceremony, he said: “Targets are sometimes beyond our control so there are two objectives we want to achieve: One is hoping our athletes will achieve their personal targets set by them together with their coaches and also the performance team so it’s really going back to meet whatever targets they’ve set.

“Number two is to hope and wish for all the athletes to become ambassadors of Singapore, to go there and show the best of what Singapore can show to the world or at least to athletes in these Asian countries and enjoy the Games.”

The Republic could see medals from three-time youth world kitefoiling champion Maximilian Maeder and sprinter Shanti Pereira, who in July attained a historic 100-200m double at the Asian championships.

Sailors Cecilia Low and Kimberly Lim, the defending 49erFX Asian Games champions, and teammate Ryan Lo, who won bronze in 2018 in the Men’s Laser, are also bound for Hangzhou. Fencer Amita Berthier is also in the mix – the 22-year-old claimed a historic bronze in June’s Asian championships.