Singapore has expertise to produce more world-class swimmers: US Swimming high performance director

SINGAPORE — Joseph Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen may be Singapore’s two world-class swimmers at the moment, but there will be more like them in the near future, because the Singapore Swimming Association has already put in place the systems needed to produce world-class swimmers.

So said Keenan Robinson, the high performance director of the United States swimming team, at a media session on Friday (Feb 24).

The 36-year-old, who has worked with swimming great Michael Phelps, pointed to the nation’s success at the Rio Olympics last year, where more than one swimmer qualified for the semi-finals of their events for the first time.

Schooling won the 100m butterfly gold, and made the semi-finals of the 100m freestyle, while Quah reached the semi-finals of both the 100m and 200m butterfly.

Since his arrival on Wednesday, Robinson has been conducting athlete and coaching clinics. He has also been observing the local swimmers’ training sessions, and his conclusion is that Singapore can become a world swimming force.

“Singapore swimming, as an administration, is no longer figuring it out — they have the plan in place,” he said on Friday.

“So every decision they’ve made, there’s thought and intent behind it. The people who are at the top right now, from the coaching and support staff standpoint, that’s where you guys are hitting home runs. They know how to get swimmers to the very top level.”

Robinson called for unequivocal backing to be given to national training centre head coach Gary Tan, technical director Sonya Porter and biomechanist Ryan Hodierne so that the SSA’s efforts will continue to bear fruit. Hodierne, in particular, was pinpointed as a crucial part of the sports science expertise behind Schooling’s historic gold-medal win in Rio.

“Just let the top minds do what they are doing,” said Robinson. “And whatever they ask for, whether it’s money (or other things), say yes because the system has worked. Do you think they don’t want to have the same amount of success again? Look at what they have done, they knocked off the giant (US).

“What they need is full, undivided support. Joseph didn’t just show up and get a medal; there’s a process … don’t hit the panic button if a low occurs.”

Robinson added that Singapore “absolutely” has all the right infrastructure in place to produce top-level champions at home, but needs to finetune the balance with academic demands to do so.

“Because you all brought in (former head coach) Sergio Lopez over here, there’s been a rise in (the quality of) coaches’ education and the (training) structure,” he said. “But one thing I’ve picked up on is the academic demands of students here … That may be why Joseph and Zheng Wen went overseas, where the environment is facilitating opportunities to get both a high level of academic education and training and competition.”