Joseph Schooling Does Singapore Proud!

[janet88]

jetsetter:

janet88:

our hero will only be back for a few days before returning to his training...hope the media gives him time to enjoy the time spent at home with his parents instead of raining interviews on him.

Yah, he was so obliging...spent 1.5h at Changi Airport. So many school children woke up early to wait for him.

Seems like he is going around to take wefies with his neighbours in Marine Parade. So tiring after a long flight from Rio.

touched down early in the morning to swarms of reporters. then later to parliament house to meet the PM. it will be nice to stretch out on the bed for a good sleep.

[jetsetter]

Aside...I'll miss Michael Phelps :please:


I'm not sure if László Cseh (30) is retiring like Phelps (31), but Schooling will definitely still face his rival, Chad le Clos who is only 24yo! le Clos beat Schooling in the 100m fly finals in the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

http://i66.tinypic.com/2cy5j7d.jpg\">

[jetsetter]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSVJM2o_UsM][/youtube]

[jetsetter]

jetsetter:

Ng En Hen on NS deferment:


http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/ng-eng-hen-schooling-can-continue-ns-deferment-if-he-continues-to-meet-conditions

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9rQhdGs7Lg][/youtube]

[jetsetter]

Imp75:

Being a sports parent, I have seen how exorbitant the cost is to raise a sports child.

Not just the costs to go to Bolles School (and now U of Texas, Austin). Time, energy, tears too.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkhaHYfe5fs][/youtube]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzt6ckNC0y0][/youtube]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndZv2KvRFag][/youtube]


Once you send your kid overseas (esp USA) from high school onwards, it's gonna hit a mil. :moneyflies:

[phtthp]

now that Joseph had won a gold Olympic medal for Sg, he can come back, start a private swimming school for children, one day in future.

Am sure many kids will be keen to enrol, learn swimming under him.

[lynntan15]

phtthp:

now that Joseph had won a gold Olympic medal for Sg, he can come back, start a private swimming school for children, one day in future.

Am sure many kids will be keen to enrol, learn swimming under him.

Should put him in charge in training those kids @ swimming in Singapore Sport School. The next generation of Olympic swimmers. Born Locally, Trained Locally. World Class Swimming School.

[sharonkhoo]

phtthp:

now that Joseph had won a gold Olympic medal for Sg, he can come back, start a private swimming school for children, one day in future.

Am sure many kids will be keen to enrol, learn swimming under him.

A top competitor may not actually be the best teacher/coach. It really depends on his personality, and it's hard to tell from the media, especially when he is still so young.

I am very impressed that his parents have been so supportive. He is also very fortunate the they were able to afford it, and that he has no siblings. It would have been much more challenging if they had to consider the needs of other children as well. Now that he has won gold, everyone is very happy and saying that their sacrifices were worth it, but would these bystaners have said the same if he had not won a medal? What if he tried for more years and retired without winning a medal? I salute the parents of those sportsmen/women who have supported their kids in their efforts to achieve their dreams even if they didn't succeed.

[hercules]

Having unwavering faith in a child’s ‘dreamlike’ ambition is not easy.


My friend’s 14th yo only daughter aspires to be a world class musician and requested to be sent to UK for music training. To do that, my friend has to do a lot of downgrading of her living standard. She is still hesitant coz she and hubby are near 50 yo.

To be or not to be…

[ChiefKiasu]

I’ve been a swimmer’s dad too, for a year when my son was between 4 and 5 years old. He was starting to show some symptoms of asthma and the doctor said we should get him to swim more. So I got him enrolled in Ace Swimming club when they were having toddler classes at the Trinity Church pool next to my flat. Then Trinity shut down for renovation and we had to go to Ace’s HQ in the RI pool for his lessons. My son got better and the coaches encouraged us to send him there everyday, 7 days a week to train as a competitive swimmer. I drove him there everyday after work, reaching the pool at around 7pm and the lessons go on till 9pm. Weekend lessons were from 8am till 10am at the Katong Swimming Complex. By the time he was 5, my son had gotten his NASSA GoldStar award, and is able to do all the strokes, with his 50m freestyle going under 50s.


So it takes a lot of hardwork and sacrifice on the part of a family to train a champion. And once started, you cannot stop because that will simply put to waste all the effort that was put in earlier. That year of competitive swimming took its toll on my family, and we had to stop just as he entered P1 because we had other priorities.

I can understand what Joseph Schooling and his family had to go through. We only did 1 year. They did 10 or more years, embracing all the uncertainty that their sacrifices may not pay off. And I am very happy that their efforts did pay off in a major way, not only for the family, but for Singapore.

Excellence requires sacrifices. And excellence should be celebrated. Why do we as a country celebrate Jo’s marvelous achievement, and yet not celebrate all the hardwork that students have to put in just to achieve academic excellence? Why should academic excellence be all hush-hush while sporting excellence be glorified? Is it because academic excellence is more "tangible" (you can use it to get better opportunities and benefit yourself) while sports excellence is more "transient"?

Until we are able to put every kind of excellence on equal footing, we will always be stressed from trying to become excellent in all the things which we have no true affinity with. Everyone is gifted in some way. We should all be proud of these gifts, groom them to attain excellence, and not be afraid/ashamed of not being good in everything.