Joe Schooling & Quah Zheng Wen Ask For National Service Deferments To Be Extended Due To Delayed Olympics

Joe Schooling - Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Joe Schooling, the Olympic 100m butterfly champion, has applied for a further extension of deferment from full-time national service in order to be able top prepare for the defence of his crown at a Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games delayed by a year, to July 23, 2021, due to the impact of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

Schooling’s national teammate Quah Zheng Wen has also applied for further deferment for the sake of his own Olympic ambitions.

Schooling, 24, and Quah, 23, were both granted long-term deferment from National Service in order to prepare for and compete at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games that would have got underway this July 24. The spread off COVID-19 wiped away the sporting calendar and led to the first postponement of a Games in history, the 1916, 1940 and 1944 Games having been cancelled at a time of World War.

The Ministry of Defence in Singapore noted in a statement prompted by queries from The Straits Times:

“In assessing the applications, the Ministry of Defence, together with the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, will be engaging them (Schooling and Quah) for details of their training plans and milestones in order to compete in the Olympic Games.”

Singapore Swimming Association president Lee Kok Choy told The Straits Times that the organisation had worked together with national sports agency Sport Singapore and Singapore Sport Institute on the swimmers’ applications for further National Service deferment.

There was no telling how the lockdown caused by the pandemic and the inability of the swimmers to stick to usual training regimes would impact their prospects at Tokyo 2020 in 2021, said Lee. Both Schooling and Quah returned home to Singapore when colleges closed in the United States as part of lockdown measures in the country where the swimmers are based.

After struggling with his form, Joe Schooling was reunited with former coach Sergio Lopez in Virginia. Quah, an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, was due to have competed in his final NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming Championships in Indiana in March.

In these action less days in the midst of a pandemic shifting the pole of life and sport and calendars and plans and goals, a reminder of Rio 2016 the morning after a magnificent moment in Olympic history:

From The Craig Lord Archive – August 2016

When The Pupil Becomes The Master: Joe Schooling & The Triple Silver To End ‘Em All

If he sticks to his word, Michael Phelps’ Olympic journey will end this evening in the medley relay. Come what may, he will have 28 medals and at least 23 of them will be gold, Rio having delivered four, with a fifth on the horizon if the United States can keep the rest of the best of medley quartets at bay.

The most soaring of soaring Olympic careers is likely to be crowned in the only colour fit to reflect the towering achievements of Phelps and his mentor Bob Bowman, not forgetting the part played by family and a significant support staff down the length of two decades and more.

The one that got away in Rio was priceless, one that helped rip away the last trace of any mask on the magnet of Michael Phelps and what his time in the sport contributed to raising the bar.

Joseph Schooling is the pupil who became the master: Olympic 100m ‘fly gold in 50.39, a world textile best inside the iconic 50.40 of Ian Crocker that Phelps was never able to get to in a textile suit (who knows what might have happened in those summers of 2008 and 2009 had all things been equal and FINA had served its sport well).

And then there was the triple silver: Michael Phelps, Chad Le Clos, Laszlo Cseh – snap. Producer: “I’ve had a great idea; we’ll get a kid from Singapore to win the Olympic 100 ‘fly ahead of Phelps and Phelps will tie for silver with two of the biggest challengers of his career to mark the solo swansong of his 16 years as a giant of the Games … what dya think?” Director: “Oh, shut up!”

Yet there it was – and what a moment to savour, to devour, history unfolding before our very eyes.

51.14, all three, and those three at that: Phelps, Chad Le Clos and Laszlo Cseh, the first two having served as ‘the face of Omega’. The days of digital. Snap. No questions. The book of Olympic history is stacked with finals that have 2, 3 and even four swimmers with the same time but in the days of the naked eye decision, a bloke in a blazer would grant the thumbs up and thumbs down when it came to which gladiator got what.

One fine day when we are no more, a reporter will sit in this spot on the Olympic press bench we’re privileged to occupy, turn to a colleague sitting next to him and say ‘wow, that must have been pretty special’. And he’d be right. It was.

(R-L) Michael PHELPS of the United States of America (USA), Chad Guy Bertrand LE CLOS of South Africa and Laszlo CSEH of Hungary tie the silver medal in the men's 100m Butterfly Final

Laszlo Cseh, Chad Le Clos, Michael Phelps – the history men – by PBK

As Phelps collected medal No 27 of his career, Joe Schooling picked up his first Olympic prize ever: a golden start for a man who met Phelps as a boy and will cherish not only that moment but this one for the rest of his life. The race was the race, the gold the gold, but to walk along the burning deck with three giants of the sport, each with a silver and a golden smile for each other to go with it was the thing that Schooling may one day tell his children and their children about. Said a beaming Schooling:

“Just being beside him. Walking alongside him and celebrating, I will cherish that for the rest of my life.”

Schooling and Phelps first met in 2008, when the US team were based in Singapore for a training camp before the Beijing Olympic Games as the winner of six golds in 2004 prepared to pick up a record eight and race beyond the 36-year-old Spitzean height of seven.

“They came to the country club that I trained at,” Schooling said. It was early in the morning, and he was working on an essay. “Everyone just rushed up and was like “it’s Michael Phelps! It’s Michael Phelps!’ and I really wanted a picture.”

Phelps posed with a boy with a cherubic face standing awkwardly next to a man twice his size. Just about everyone in the pool has a photo of themselves with Phelps but Schooling is the only one who can say he has one of himself as a boy to sit next to the one in which he stands one step up from Phelps at an Olympic Games.

“It was very early in the morning,” he recalled, “and I was so shell shocked, I couldn’t really open my mouth.” It was similar as they walked around the deck and Schooling turned to Phelps and said, “Dude this is crazy, out of this world, I don’t know how to feel right now.” Phelps smiled, and said “I know”.

In the press conference afterwards, Joe Schooling said: “If it wasn’t for Michael, I don’t think I could have gotten to this point.

“Chad also idolised Michael. He’s the greatest. He’s accomplished so much in his career. It’s only fitting to idolise someone like that. He’s the perfect guy to dream of accomplishing what he has accomplished. One gold medal is nuts. I can’t imagine 22 or 23. That is out of this world. I wanted to be like him as a kid. I think a lot of this is because of Michael. He is the reason why I wanted to be a better swimmer.”

Joe Schooling was the champion who felt “humbled” by events that left him sitting next to giants whose club he had just joined. And he did that with the President of Singapore there to cheer him on. The new household name said:

“It means a lot. That was a tough road. A lot of pressure. You have to learn how to manage that. It wasn’t easy. I’m blessed and privileged and thankful I could accomplish the things I have wanted to. I hope this paves a new road for sports in Singapore. I hope it shows that people from the smallest countries in the world can do extraordinary things. Hopefully, it changes all of sporting culture in Singapore.”

Joe Schooling – the next man and the last one to stop Michael Phelps – by Patrick B. Kraemer

Michael PHELPS (back) of the United States of America (USA) and Laszlo CSEH of Hungary showing to each other 3 fingers after finishing together with Chad Guy Bertrand LE CLOS of South Africa (not pictured in the same time second in the men's 100m Butterfly Final

Michael Phelps and Laszlo Cseh share a ‘hey – three of us get the silver’ – priceless – PBK

Michael Phelps (back) and Laszlo Cseh show each other three fingers after finishing together with Chad Le Clos in a three-way tie in the 100 butterfly final – By Patrick B. Kraemer

He adds: “It’s crazy. It still hasn’t sunk in. I think I need a couple of days, I need to chill by myself and digest what has happened. It’s really an honour and privilege to race against Chad, Michael, and Laszlo. This race means more to my family and my friends and those people who supported me. I did this for them. When you race for people bigger than yourself, I think it means a lot to accomplish what you wanted to.”

Phelps is just about done racing but he is far from done in swimming. He said: “I wanted to change the sport of swimming.

“That’s what I wanted to do. With the people we have in the sport now, I think you’re seeing that. Being able to have that opportunity to change the sport and continue to change the sport is something I’m looking forward to.

“Daring kids to dream. That’s the only reason why I’m sitting here. I was a little kid with a dream and it turned into a couple of medals, a pretty good couple of years of swimming and I had a blast. Not be afraid to know that the sky’s the limit.”

Michael PHELPS (R) of the United States of America (USA) goes to see his mother Deborah (L), his wife Nicole Johnson and their son Boomer during his lap of honor after winning in the men's 200m Butterfly Final

Meet the family – by Patrick B, Kraemer

Michael Phelps with mum Debbie and Boomer, his son with Nicole Johnson – by PBK

But no more racing? Says Phelps:

“Done. Chad asked me in the ready room. I am not going four more years and I’m standing by that. I’ve been able to do everything I have ever put my mind to in this sport. 24 years in this sport. I’m happy with how things have finished. That’s why I came back after 2012.

“I didn’t want to have a ‘what if’ 20 years later. Being able to close the door on this sport the way I want to, that’s why I’m happy. I’m ready to retire and I’m happy about it. I’m in a better state of mind this time than I was four years ago. I am ready to spend some time with Boomer and Nicole and watch the little dude grow.”

So what would he be getting up to? “Probably going to travel and work some. But after that I don’t know. I’m really looking forward to seeing Boomer and Nicole and my family. Obviously a couple of weeks, maybe a couple of months I’m probably not going to do much.”

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