Joseph Schooling victory parade

The young athlete conduct was exemplary. He has done Singapore proud like no other athlete ever has. Sports is big these days and so if you score big it is nothing less than huge. It is quite a feat to bag gold with three others runner ups and one of them was Michael Phelps to boot. There is not likely to another Olympian like Phelps for sports just like we have not seen the likes of another Einstein in science.

As I watched and enjoyed the celebration over Joseph Schooling's achievement, I noticed the young fellow never let it go to his head. On the other hand I am starting to worry about ourselves. Have we gone overboard with all these? It is becoming like organizations coming out to out do each other extolling our first gold medalist Olympian. I just saw the photo above and I pointed out to my daughter that this is beginning to look like a victorious Roman general just saved the Empire and is returning to a victory parade!

If you were an American gold medalist Olympian even of  Michael Phelps class you still have your life but Joseph Schooling just unwittingly sold himself to Singapore. This is a very heavy burden on the shoulder of a young man. They better support him very well for the 2020 Olympics. The pressure to do even better would be tremendous and much greater than getting his (should say our) first gold.

I hope we never see war but if are unfortunate to have to fight for our survival, would the returning victorious commander be feted this way as well? Something tell me he/she won't be. Yes, why should the commander necessarily be a man?

Let joy overflow and celebrate for the rest of this week but I think it is important to have a sense of proportion as well.

I think it is a matter of time we will also achieve our first Science Nobel Prize. How would we celebrate that?

Joseph Schooling has shown us that it is possible for this tiny red dot to reach for the stars. Well remember the first ones to reach there but not much heralded were actually our founding fathers who created the socio-political platform to make this and more possible. And we never gave them a victory parade.

Update: Aug 16 11:20 am

Well said! Always prefer others to say it for me. Saves me a lot of time! See article.

But having said so a bureaucracy can never good parents to anyone. So don't try to be but be an enabler. Be more noble and shake that glass is half empty attitude, worse that the grass is greener next door.

Update: Aug 16 10:35 pm

Good article on this topic in the ST today.

Financially for many it is a struggle. The failure rate is very high. Nobody do this for the money but the passion and glory. Compared to the Americans, our athletes are very fortunate.