‘My mistake was the complacency to think that this will last forever,’ says Joseph Schooling

The photograph in The New York Times was evocative. Water flying and an athlete screaming. The flag on the swimmer’s cap was of Singapore. The headline read “Somebody (His Name’s Joseph Schooling) Finally Beats Michael Phelps”.

It was Aug 12, 2016.

Before the Olympic 100m butterfly final, Joseph’s father, Colin, told him to “stun the world”. So he did. He broke the Olympic record and wrote a golden history for his land. As ESPN shouted, “How tiny Singapore rocked Rio”.

That was Joseph Schooling’s brilliant time. Now it has run out.

Of that night in Rio, Schooling says, it felt like “they were playing in my sandbox”. That sandbox is now forever shut. The swimmer who authored the greatest career in Singapore sport has retired at 28.

“If you dedicated your whole life to something,” he says, “stepping into another phase is both scary and exciting.”

Before his announcement, Schooling sat down with The Straits Times for an exclusive, 84-minute conversation on a remarkable life. This is a swimmer who was acutely ambitious, volatile at practice – “if one person doesn’t hold the same sort of mindset (to be the best), don’t be there” – won medals at every level (Olympic, world, Asian, Commonwealth), consumed cannabis overseas and never bettered his Olympic time.

Nothing was off the record. Not whether champions should hold themselves to a higher standard. Yes, he said. Not even the confusing years after he won Olympic gold, and form eluded him.

What happened?

“Complacency,” he bluntly says.

“My mistake was the complacency to think that this will last forever because I’m so far ahead. Add on ego, add on pride. Add on that, ‘I’m never going to be shut-down attitude’. That’s a recipe for complacency. That’s one of the lessons that I learnt.”