After a difficult 2021, Joseph Schooling looks ahead to SEA Games while embracing National Service

“YOUR BODY GOES WHERE YOUR MIND TELLS IT TO”

Now undergoing vocational training in the Navy, enlisting has been a new experience for the former Olympic champion. The 26-year-old enlisted for National Service in January this year.

“Army life has been okay, interesting, but adjusting well to it with my batch-mates. It’s all about atmosphere, like I’ve learned. So if you really like and gel with your batch-mates, life becomes a lot better,” Schooling explained.

“The first two weeks were nuts. But after that, they kind of see like: ‘Hey, you’re one of the guys, you really don’t have any airs about you, like … you’re just here to serve your time like anyone else.’ Once they see that, they’re just like: ‘Okay, this guy is pretty chill.’ And then from there on, start having real conversations.”

While the age gap between him, as well as his peers and superiors in the army, is quite big, Schooling said he is enjoying his time there.

“If you give yourself into the process, and you don’t fight the journey, it can actually be quite fun,” he said.

“BMT (Basic Military Training) was good. Right now, vocation training in the Navy has been good as well. Swimming-wise (it) has been good. I’m enjoying the atmosphere with all the coaches, with my teammates as well. And honestly, 2022 – although time constricting – has been good and I can’t really complain.”

Schooling competed in his first meet since the Tokyo Olympics at the 52nd SNAG Major Games Qualifier in March.

There, he clocked 52.09 seconds in the 100m butterfly finals, his best time in more than two years. This meant that he met the “A” cuts for the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games which will be held later this year.

Schooling also met the qualifying timings in the 50m butterfly event for both Games.

Given that he was not able to train for SNAG as he was undergoing BMT, he said it was “massive” to clock the times he did.

“Given all the circumstances going on on the outside, I thought that was a great performance. Beginning of the week, I wasn’t really sure if I was going to make Asian Games, but to be able to like step up and do that, I think that was a great stepping stone to kind of catapult yourself to the next level,” he added.

“Whatever it is, I’m just having fun. Swimming for a different reason beats the hell out of swimming because I tried to prove a point.”