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Three national swimmers -- Amanda Lim, Joseph Schooling and Teong Tzen Wei -- have been issued letters of warning and have support suspended by SportSG for one month after being investigated for drug-related offences.
SportSG announced on Sep. 28 that its internal review has concluded last week, and these three athletes were found to have acted in breach of their athlete agreements.
Urine tested negative but admitted to taking controlled drugs overseas
The three athletes had been investigated by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) for drug-related offences, SportSG said.
In each case, their urine tested negative for controlled drugs.
However, all three athletes have admitted to consumption of controlled drugs overseas, whilst they were TeamSG athletes, according to the statement from SportSG.
Lim was also issued a stern warning by CNB for the offence of possession of a drug utensil.
"The three athletes had fallen short of the code of conduct expected of all TeamSG athletes as part of their athlete agreement. SportSG takes the breaches of the code of conduct seriously,"
It added that Team Singapore athletes are expected to hold the highest standards of conduct as they represent Singapore on the world stage and are "role models" for Singaporeans.
1-month suspension of all support
After the review, SportSG has decided to suspend all support to Schooling, Lim and Teong as carded athletes under the High Performance Scheme, for a period of one month, starting from Oct. 1, 2022.
Accordingly, all three athletes will not receive training assistance grants and access to sports science and sports medicine facilities and services during this period.
Teong, who is also a spexScholar, will have his scholarship benefits withdrawn for one month.
All three have also been issued a formal letter of warning.
SportSG added that they had taken into account of a range of factors including the findings by CNB before deciding on this course of action.
All three also fully cooperated throughout the internal review process and readily admitted to the consumption, SportSG said.
The agency also noted that the three athletes had expressed remorse for their lapses in judgement and appealed to be given a second chance to prove themselves.
" All three athletes have resolved not to abuse controlled drugs in the future, and are also committed to making amends by contributing back to the sporting community and play a part in education and other efforts to prevent others from making the same mistake. SportSG will continue to support all three athletes after the period of suspension, in both their sporting endeavours as well as their continued rehabilitation from this episode," the statement added.
Top image via Amanda Lim, Joseph Schooling and Teong Tzen Wei/ Instagram.