Fresh into his retirement, Olympic gold medallist Joseph Schooling holds no animosity about his 2022 enlistment for National Service (NS).

The former national swimmer enlisted for NS on Jan. 3, 2022, after a seven-year deferment.

Responding to questions at an Apr. 2, 2024 press conference about whether his enlistment "threw a spanner" in his career, Schooling said that he initially "had a really negative mindset about being taken out after the Olympics".

"The first three months were probably one of the hardest three months of my life," he said.

"[But] all of a sudden one morning, after I finished half of Basic Military Training (BMT)... I woke up and felt like, okay, you know what? You are in this situation.

And you just gotta roll with it. You don't fight the tide, you swim with it."

He added that while serving his NS in the Navy, he "gained a lot of respect" for his fellow Navy men.

"Can we do things better? Yes. But no, NS did not end my career per se. I ended it on my terms."

The deferment

Schooling was first granted a deferment in 2014 to pursue his goal of winning an Olympic medal at the 2016 Games in Rio.

After his legendary win, the Singapore Armed Forces approved his request to extend his deferment till after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and again to cover the Games' postponement in 2021.

In 2022, Schooling enlisted for full-time NS alongside fellow swimmer Quah Zheng Wen.

The swimmer later confessed to consuming cannabis overseas while on short-term disruption from full-time NS to train and participate in the 2022 SEA Games.

While his urine test returned negative for controlled drugs, the Ministry of Defence said that he would no longer be eligible for leave or disruption to train or compete while in NS.

Speaking about his drug scandal at the press conference, Schooling said that he regrets putting his loved ones through "all the angst and the scrutiny of it".

"With everything in life, there are lessons... Life throws you curveballs, you make decisions, and you have to live with the consequences of the decisions that you've made."

"In hindsight, the best way I can move forward is to know that there is a lesson to be learnt from that.

And if I'm better tomorrow than I am today, I'll take it."

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Top image from Mothership & Joseph Schooling/Instagram