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

In an exclusive retirement interview, Joseph Schooling talks to Rohit Brijnath about the highs and lows of his career

Nothing was off the record. Not whether champions should hold themselves to a higher standard. Yes, he said. Not even the confusing years after“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.”But this story begins with a toddler who used to run instinctively towards water.

“Feel,” he explains, “is the ability to close my eyes and know exactly how my body is positioned in the water. When I start pressing, and start catching that water with my fingers, I don’t need to open my eyes. I know where my body is and how and why my body is moving the way it is.” “I grabbed Serge and I said, we have this tradition. I want you to walk me to the ready room and he was shocked.” It was a pupil saying thank you to his guru.

“Michael is next to me. And I felt like that was one of the easiest races I’d ever swum. Not even tired at all. Almost to the point where I could dictate what I wanted to do, but not only that, what everyone else does.” Joseph Schooling during the men’s 4x100m medley relay final at the 18th Asian Games in Gelora Bung Karno Aquatic Centre, Jakarta, on Aug 24, 2018. PHOTO: ST FILEMaybe also Schooling never gave himself a break. He’d woken, swum, lifted, eaten, breathed, fought all his life with a single purpose. Olympic gold. Now he had it, now what? In hindsight, he says, “I was just sick and tired of it. I had almost two decades of non-stop without giving my mind a rest.

“The way I want to look at it is, OK, you know what, this person actually looks up to athletes, looks up to me. And I should hold myself to higher standards as well.

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