September 30, 11:19 AM 
514 Chai Chee Lane 03-16, Singapore 469029 After the brouhaha over Joseph Schooling's citizenship (he's 100 per cent Singaporean by the way), the 19-year-old made headlines today for being a true blue Singaporean who likes to celebrate a hard-earned Asian Games gold medal with a couple of drinks.
The Straits Times reported that Schooling is believed to be among three swimmers under investigation for allegedly returning to the athlete's village intoxicated after a late night out. Teo Zhen Ren, 20, and Roanne Ho, 21, are the other two members who appeared drunk when they came back in the early hours of Saturday night.
The paper added that at least two were heavily intoxicated and needed assistance from village security personnel to get back to the housing area for Singapore athletes.
However, TODAY reported that sources said that the swimmers did not appear drunk when they returned to the village.
To add on to the confusion, an anonymous sports administrators told The New Paper:
"They are young athletes who were letting off some steam at the end of a tough competition, and months of preparation before that. Athletes are human, and they need that. I think it's best to acknowledge what happened, make sure the (manner of their return to the village) is not repeated, and allow them to move on, and get back to training."
We agree. Athletes are human and human beings need a few drinks once in a while, especially after doing the country proud.
This is no Catch-22 situation for Schooling: If proven to be not as drunk as what was reported, Schooling's female fan base is going to swell considerably because of his ability to hold his drinks, and if he was really wasted, that means he's a party animal, which will send hearts fluttering. Talk about a win-win situation.
But hey, at least he's no Naoya Tomita. The Japanese men’s 200m breaststroke champion at the 2010 Asian Games was expelled for stealing a camera.
Get Schooling a beer. No, get that man a Tiger (and some pizza).
Top photo via.
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