Joseph Schooling fails to make final cut for Asian Games in Hangzhou
The 28-year-old swimmer had initially made the preliminary list for Hangzhou.
Singapore's Joseph Schooling reacts after the final of the men’s 50m butterfly swimming event during the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta on Aug 23, 2018. (Photo: AFP/Martin Bureau)
SINGAPORE: Olympic champion and Singapore national swimmer Joseph Schooling will not be competing at the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou.
The 28-year-old was excluded from the final list of athletes set to represent Team Singapore at the Sep 23 to Oct 8 event. The contingent comprising 431 athletes was announced on Saturday (Aug 5).
The athletes will compete across 32 sports, said Sport Singapore and the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC), adding that the contingent is also the largest for the country at the Asian Games.
The 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 was originally scheduled to take place in 2022 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Schooling had initially made the first cut for Hangzhou, according to a preliminary list released in April 2022.
"While I will not be participating, I wish the contingent the best at Asian Games and to do Singapore proud," Schooling said in a statement.
"The status of my training and competition remains the same. More details of my future will be shared in due course."
In response to queries from CNA, Singapore Aquatics said that selection for the Asian Games is based on swimmers clocking the fastest times during the qualification window.
Due to the postponement, the selection window deadline for swimmers was extended from April 2022 to May 2023.
“At the end of the extended window, two swimmers emerged ahead of Joseph on the back of faster times clocked during the selection window,” it added.
PREVIOUS ASIAN GAMES
Schooling had put up a record-setting showing at the previous two editions of the Asian Games.
At Incheon in 2014, he clinched Singapore’s first medal in a male swimming event at the Asian Games in 24 years, grabbing bronze in the 200m Butterfly event. He then took home gold and silver in the 100m and 50m butterfly events.
Schooling was responsible for two of the total of four gold medals earned by Team Singapore in Jakarta in 2018. The other two golds were from sailing and contract bridge.
He won both the 50m and 100m butterfly events, also setting an Asian Games record for the 100m. He subsequently helped the men's 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relay teams to bronze.
Schooling’s statement on Saturday comes after two difficult years for the athlete.
In March this year, he announced his withdrawal from the Southeast Asian Games. He had been named on Singapore’s shortlist for the event in Cambodia, which took place in May.
He said at that time that he was “not at the level” at which he expects to compete at the event.
In 2021, he relinquished his Olympic crown in Tokyo, after failing to make the semi-finals of the 100m butterfly event which he won in 2016. Just months later, he had to cope with the death of his father Colin.
In 2022, after enlisting and then taking part in the SEA Games in Vietnam, Schooling confessed to consuming cannabis overseas.
As a result of his admission, he received a formal letter of warning from the Ministry of Defence and lost his disruption privileges.
Sport Singapore also suspended support for him for a month, and he was fined for breaching rules in the Singapore National Olympic Council's code of conduct.
Schooling will compete later this month in the inaugural Professional Triathletes Organisation Asian Open in Singapore as part of a relay team.
He announced his participation in the 100km "experienced amateur" triathlon race in a social media post on Jul 17.
The event, which will take place in the Marina Bay area from Aug 19 to Aug 20, comprises a 2km swim, an 80km bike ride and an 18km run.
