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Rethink strategy for achieving sporting glory

Joseph Schooling’s success brings our sports strategy under closer scrutiny. We should rethink foreign imports as a path to achieving sporting glory (“Success this time around is that much sweeter because it’s home-grown”; Aug 15).

Joseph Schooling’s success brings our sports strategy under closer scrutiny. We should rethink foreign imports as a path to achieving sporting glory (“Success this time around is that much sweeter because it’s home-grown”; Aug 15).

When Joseph touched the wall, my wife and I jumped for joy and hugged each other. We could hear our estate screaming his name.

Now that he has won gold at the Olympics, we should focus our resources on training our local athletes rather than lure foreigners with monetary incentives to represent Singapore.

We should have more faith in our home-grown athletes and invest in them to keep the Olympic glory going.

Contrary to what Singapore Table Tennis Association president Ellen Lee said, the Olympics is about winning (“Despite losses, paddlers’ ‘battle is far from over’”; Aug 11).

It is not presumptuous to expect our paddlers to do their best to win a medal, which is what they were trained to do for four years and what Joseph had aimed to do for Singapore since he was 14.

He is a local boy who made good on his own. He is the face of Singapore whom young lads can identify with and emulate, and an inspiration to those aspiring to keep our flag flying in Tokyo 2020.

When he mounted the podium at the prize presentation ceremony, there was an inexplicable feeling, a genuine national pride that announced to the world that Singapore had finally made it on the Olympic stage.

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