Joseph Schooling and the gold medal in the Olympics

Everybody's talking about it. And everybody's excited about it. Definitely I am too!! It is such an honour and pride for Singapore that a true blue Singaporean has won gold in the Olympics! Beating Michael Phelps, no less!! Call me ethnocentric or whatever but wins from Singapore athletes, who weren't Singaporeans but born elsewhere, just don't make me cheer. (Not that I would know of any because I don't follow the Olympics. I followed the last Olympics though) However last Olympics although the name Michael Phelps was already all over, I never bothered to know much about him. But this round I am just so in awe. When I read about his interactions with JS and how he previously and still encourage JS, it is just so WAAAHHH. I mean that's JS's idol encouraging him. Even though they are also rivals in the pool!! How cool!! He is totally like a humble mentor!! When he got silver and JS got Gold he even hugged and congratulated JS. And when reporters were asking him questions he directed them to JS saying that he was the one who won Gold and should be the one being asked questions. OMG so humble!! Just really so in awe about how amazing Michael Phelps is as a swimmer, and how humble and mentor-ish he is as a person.

Anyway, so awesome that Joseph Schooling won the gold medal!! And on a more serious note, a little jealousy. HAHAHAHA. I MEAN IT WAS ALWAYS MY DREAM TO REPRESENT SINGAPORE IN THE OLYMPICS FOR EITHER SWIMMING OR RUNNING!! Hahas. Though I know jolly well that I'm never good enough for that.

But you know when we were choosing Secondary Schools, during my time (not sure if it is just me or what), sports school was like a dream. It was always my dream to get into sports school and eventually train and represent Singapore in Swimming!! Especially swimming because it's my favouritest sport.

Not sure if others felt the same way because I once asked my sister and she said she never had any wish to be in sports school at all.

Nonetheless, I always wished for that because in my swimming class last time apparently I was the fastest in the class in breaststroke. Haha so cool right? Not really actually. All were females (except 2 guys who joined later. They were older than me but started learning later so of course they would be slower?) and I think 2 were younger/same age as me and 1 was older (by 1 year). And of course my sister was in the class as well. So.. not very cool because the class was small so winning wasn't that difficult. HAHAHAHA. When I tell my sister of my OLYMPICS SWIMMING DREAM she never fails to remind me that she passed silver before me (though we started learning at the same time). Well that's true._. I swam one length of the pool with the tshirt and pyjamas on and I couldn't swim back. Held onto the side of the pool and cried. HAHAHAHA. So embarrassing to think about it now. My mum and coach tried to encourage me to continue swimming but I cried and said cannot. Eventually the rest were training for gold cert(?) but I hadn't passed silver but my coach trained me the same as the others because he believed that I was the same level as them. (I joined the next time for silver and passed it with flying colours. Even swam till I lost count and when I checked with the coach who was counting he said I over already and asked me to go out of the pool because I was done)

ANYWAY that is beside the point. The point is I wish I had the potential to be a swimmer in the national team. I think maybe it's also because I had awesome coaches for swimming and running. I mean if I were to be completely objective, I am so damn bloody average in my swimming and running. Maybe even below average. But my coaches never ever said that to me, and made me feel like I was something.

I remember during my athletics days in secondary school, I was always the slowest girl in sprinting. FOREVER THE LAST. And eventually my coach plucked me out to do long distance training instead. The rest of the girls would be doing short distance sprinting but I would be running sets of 1km/set. So even though I was the worst in sprinting and my coach realised it, he made sure to train me in another aspect so I wouldn't get demoralised I guess? Actually I am forever grateful to my athletics coach because of it. I mean looking back now, I see that maybe he decided to train me for long distance because my sprinting cmi. But when I was at that age, I thought it must have been because my stamina was good so he wanted to train me long distance! So I am really glad that he actually put that thought into my mind, because look at me now. I am still doing long distances(: Though not to the extent of regular 21km or 42.195km and not even regular jogging, but I do join quite afew 10kms. And sometimes when I run I think to myself, 'Coach would have been proud to see me like this'. Not because I am fast or have good timings, because I definitely don't. My timings are really cui. But because he inspired me to continue jogging till now. So, thank you coach! Haha

Which kinda brings me back to the whole JS news. His father saw potential in him and paid out of his own pocket to send him overseas to have the best coach. Read an article that another swimmer Quah Zheng Wen did not have those privileges (tbh not many would have those privileges) and perhaps if given the same privileges, might have gone to do better than his pb right now? Well the main point of the article was to slam Singapore for not acknowledging local talents for the Olympics but rather spending money on other less than desirable reasons (read as scholarships for foreign students while Singaporean students struggle with fees). A Singaporean rower Saiyidah Aisyah hadta crowdfund for money to go to the Olympics. Whatt?? I did see that eventually government did do something but seriously? She is representing Singapore and gotta find money herself to go to the Olympics. Thanks Singapore for recognizing and encouraging talent for the Olympics.

Anyway! I am getting long winded and trying to appear knowledgeable about all the money/privilege saga about Singapore providing them to foreign talent instead of local talent. Tbh I only got these information from reading them off facebook, where people share articles and I kaypoh and read. HAHA.

Nonetheless, really wish that Singapore could be more active in looking for athletes to represent Singapore, from LOCAL TALENTS. Haha and secretly wishing that Singapore was proactive about it long ago and somehow I was capable enough. HAHAHAHAHA. OH WELL. I CAN DREAM RIGHT.

I can't join the Olympics and represent Singapore in swimming but I can (and have) join the Swim for Hope event to help raise funds for the beneficiaries(:
I can't join the Olympics and represent Singapore in running but I can (and have) join many runs in Singapore which makes me happy and challenge myself. And my goal is to go overseas for Marathons and also to eventually complete a triathlon. (: