Parental Guidance

Colin and May Schooling insist they have no parenting secrets in Schooling Singapore’s first Olympic champ — except to make Joseph eat his veggies since young.

- Jocelyn Lee

WHO ARE THEY?

COLIN, 68, and MAY SCHOOLING, 61, parents of Singapore’s first Olympic champ, Joseph Schooling. Colin, a businessman who runs a trading company, and May, said company’s finance director, have forked out an estimated $1.35 million over the years to pay for Joseph’s training and studies in the US, including selling a property in Australia in 2005. What do they plan to do with Joseph’s reward (about $650,000 after deductions) for his Olympic feat? “Joseph told me to use the money to pay off our loans. He’s very sweet. But we haven’t decided what to do with the money yet.We haven’t received it anyway,” May quips.

8 DAYS: You’ve done what no other Singaporean parent has done before: raise an Olympic champ. What are you like as parents? 

MAY SCHOOLING: I don’t pressure him about anything, not even his studies. All I tell him is: “You study for yourself, not for Mummy. Whether you want to be a rubbish collector or to sweep the streets, it’s up to you. Mummy will still support you.” He studies hard. [He majors in Economics in University of Texas] and his average GPA is 3.75 [out of 4]. I did nag at him when he was younger, like how any other mother would nag at her kid. There’s nothing special in the way we brought him up. He is very serious when it comes to training, though. He may complain that he is physically tired but he never tells me he wants to give up. He doesn’t like to lose, that’s why.

Sending a 13-year-old kid to the US to pursue a swimming dream like you did is a risk that most Singaporean parents might not dare take.