SINGAPORE — When former national swimmer Tao Li sprinted her way to a fifth place finish in the 100m butterfly event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the expectations for her to deliver a medal at her next outing weighed on her mind.
that he had given in to “a moment of weakness after going through a very tough period of my life”. The swimmer lost his father Colin, who had played a key role in his success, to cancer in November last year.
And the scrutiny is even worse for athletes who have already gained some success in their sport, said the veteran athletes. For instance, Schooling himself and 2021 Badminton World Champion Loh Kean Yew — Singapore's two most high-profile sportsmen in recent years — have yet to match their career-defining achievements or even come close since then.In the world of elite sports, the pressures that athletes face creep in long before they dance under the lights. And on the big day, the competition itself is a stressful experience — but the pressure is often due to extrinsic factors.
“If you feel that your funding level is not commensurate with your performance… then there’s that added ‘guilty’ feeling which makes you want to perform harder, want to try harder and, of course, that puts more pressure on you.” “It is very common for young athletes to ineffectively process their performance, and they can fixate on it for a really long time, and it can really affect their performance going forward,” she added.
And while most athletes who do not make it to the top of their sport remain relatively anonymous to the public, a whole new dimension of pressure sets in the moment they prove themselves on the world stage. “After the Olympics, everybody came out of the woods saying ‘I was part of Joseph’s journey’, and people only want to see the positives of life… and to have a perfect life, a perfect family… that’s a lot of pressure for anybody,” he said.
“For a lot of other countries, priority will be sports, and then school is at the side. But for us, school is always the priority, and sports is more of a co-curricular activity,” said the 25-year-old Olympian, who also competed in the Tokyo Games. Former national diver Jonathan Chan, who competed in the Tokyo Games, said that pursuing diving as a sport throughout his university years had come at a huge opportunity cost.
“I felt added pressure in that all the sacrifices made to balance the different priorities would seem to be for nought if I wasn’t able to deliver sporting results,” said the 47-year-old.Ex-national shuttler Wong Shoon Keat said that for national badminton players, the sacrifices are often greater as compared to other sports, as most players play the game full-time.
Singapore’s culture of prioritising academics over sport is also harmful for young athletes, said sports psychologists. This can have a negative outcome for children, who find themselves doing the sport for a very utilitarian purpose, other than pursuing it as a passion. “Everything is tied to dollars and cents, and because of this kind of culture that we have, a lot of us don’t feel like we can do sports full time… and instead need something to fall back on,” she said.
Dr Tan said: “Is it constructive to tell myself that I am making a huge sacrifice and that I’m so pitiful?” "The psychology behind winning and staying at the top and the satisfaction are two different things," said Dr Tan."I'm not saying that if you win once, and you're a one-hit wonder, you should be satisfied with yourself."
Kunalan said that the support that the athletes receive now is far greater than what he used to get, when he was competing in athletics in the 1960s and 70s. This pales in comparison to the larger amount of resources granted to national athletes now, under programmes such as the spexScholarship. This arrangement may suit larger countries fine, as they have a larger group of world-class athletes who can take turns to compete in various competitions.
Veteran athletes said that no matter what the era, there's always the proverbial forbidden fruit somewhere to tempt or distract sportsmen and sportswomen from performing well. “My father felt that I was so weird as a teenager who was not interested in computer games, that he forced me to play,” he said. “You want some normality… you cannot be totally ignorant.”For instance, while he was training as a national athlete, he still went out with his friends for drinking sessions — except he would make compromises such as not consume any alcohol.
With younger athletes, Dr Tham will often do a “mental screening” on them, such as asking them what their mental state is, and what stressors they face. As Fang, the former national triathlete, put it, these sportspeople are in a high-pressure environment, and have fewer outlets than most to de-stress.
Ultimately, said Schooling’s former coach Lopez, it is unrealistic to expect athletes to not want to do the things that normal people do. However, the sportspeople interviewed all agreed that a line has to be drawn with illegal substances, such as recreational or performance enhancing drugs. However, such feats have yet to be repeated on the same scale for either of the two athletes, which begs the question: Is it fair for Singaporeans to expect a repeat of world beating performances from our athletes?“People think that just because you are an Olympic champion, that you have to be an Olympic champion the next time,” said Lopez. “I’m sorry, but if it was that easy, everybody would do it.
“The skills to stay at the top are much more complex… Most of the time, you practise chasing to reach the top, but how many get to practise staying at the top?” Ultimately, it all boils down to the nation’s sporting culture, said Schooling’s former coach Lopez, echoing the sentiment expressed by other athletes interviewed.
A confluence of factors — Schooling having the potential to be a world champion, him daring to dream of beating Phelps one day, and most crucially, his parents believing fully in his dreams — was what led to an unlikely Olympic gold for Singapore, said Lopez.
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