SINGAPORE – The Olympic hangover can be a difficult phenomenon to overcome, as evidenced by American great Michael Phelps’ much-documented struggles with discipline and depression after his feats in the pool.

Some, like local hero Joseph Schooling, can attest to the challenges that many athletes face in rediscovering their motivation to keep training and winning. It is also a struggle that Roland Schoeman knows well. At the Athens Games in 2004, the South African swimmer won his first Olympic gold medal in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay – a first-ever Olympic gold for the country’s male swimmers. After hitting the heights of his career, Schoeman found himself at a new post-Games low.

“Everybody thinks that once you’ve won the Olympic gold medal, your life is amazing, it’s easy, (but) it’s not,” said Schoeman, who was in town recently to share his experience and expertise with the national swimmers.

“It makes it harder because now that you’ve achieved your goal, what next?”

After his triumph in Rio, Schooling, 21, found himself struggling with a “huge” post-Olympics hangover as he took time to find his drive. He did not have a good outing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association swimming championships due to illness, and did not win an individual gold medal.

Schoeman, who picked himself up to win gold medals at the 2005 and 2007 world championships, believes Schooling has what it takes to keep going. The key, said the 36-year-old, is for the Singaporean to reframe his goals to maintain his winning edge as he chases his goal of breaking Phelps’ 100m butterfly world record (49.82sec).

He added: “That’s one thing Michael Phelps did better than everybody else – he found a way to come up with new goals, and continued to find a way to get better and better and better, work on those goals and it’s going to be the same thing for Joseph.

“He went 50.39sec (in Rio), he’s not far off, just half a second. If there’s anybody (who can do it), I’d say Chad Le Clos and a guy like Joseph have the capability to break that world record, for sure.”

GOOD SUPPORT SYSTEM

Schoeman admitted that he was impressed with Schooling’s fearlessness during the Rio Olympics, particularly when faced with the likes of Phelps, Le Clos and Laszlo Cseh (Hungary), who were favourites in the 100m fly.

“He’s had an amazing rise and he does so many things right,” said Schoeman. “The thing about swimming is, it’s not about what you deserve – you don’t deserve anything, you go out there and take it.

“Nobody was thinking about him (Schooling) – it was like us in 2004 in the relay, but we qualified first and almost broke the world record, then we won the gold – he took the bull by the horns and he won that medal. He took it away from everybody else, and what better opportunity than to do it the way he did?”

Schoeman added that it is important for Schooling, who studies at the University of Texas and trains under famed coach Eddie Reese, to have a good support system and also learn to manage his expectations.

“My advice for Joseph, if anything, (is that) if you don’t have the race you want, the result you expected… when you touch that wall, that race is over,” he said.

“If there’s something you don’t like about it, find a way to get better, to learn and make sure that never happens again, but then be excited and optimistic about the races you still have ahead of you.

“I like him, he’s a good kid and he seems, from my interactions with him, to have a good head on his shoulders, comes from a good family. He’s got the support, it’s going to be about managing himself from here on out, managing expectations, not getting too hard on himself if he doesn’t win.

“He’s got the right people with him supporting him, Eddie Reese as a coach and in Texas is one of the best at managing athletes, so it’s going to be exciting to see what happens for him over the course of the next few years.”

QUAH HAS A “KILLER INSTINCT”

Schooling is not the only Singaporean swimmer who has caught Schoeman’s eye.

The South African, who is currently on a hiatus from swimming and is working as a consultant, pointed to Quah Zheng Wen – who qualified for the Olympics semi-finals in the 100m and 200m butterfly – as one to watch for the future.

“I’ve had a little bit of interaction with him and he’s one of those guys with amazing skills, good technique and when he needs to have that big-match temperament, he switches it on,” he said.

“You can teach somebody how to work harder, be more efficient and have (better) technique, but you are not always able to teach killer instinct, and if somebody has that ability to get their hand on the wall faster than anybody else, that’s an asset, and it seems like something that he has.”

SCHOEMAN KEEN ON S’PORE

Currently based in Phoenix, Arizona, Schoeman now travels the world for his engagements, with events in Czech Republic, France and South Africa scheduled in the upcoming months.

However, he is not able to give up on competitive swimming, or the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, just yet. “If it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t then there was another purpose… I am destined for,” he said.

Schoeman also spent the past two weeks working with Singapore’s national swimmers and has discussed the possibility of returning more often with National Training Centre head coach Gary Tan and Singapore Swimming Association technical director Sonya Porter.

He added: “Whether it’s a mentorship programme, or just to purely help with the continued development of these athletes as a consultant, I’d definitely love to come back to Singapore as soon as I can to help these kids continue to grow.”