The Straits Times | Schooling on his retirement: This is where the real work starts - video Dailymotion

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Joseph Schooling, who won the only Olympic Games gold medal for Singapore, has announced his retirement from swimming. The 100m butterfly gold medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games said he is going to work in the venture capital space.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00 First things first, I really appreciate everyone making some time on this

00:05 morning to be here and cover this event too. It's quite an emotional time

00:10 not only for myself but the people around my family, my loved ones, my

00:16 friends, my whole team. And to say this is a bittersweet moment doesn't really do

00:23 this moment justice. It's been filled with a lot of ups and downs. I'm

00:30 sure by now you guys have already heard I'll be retiring from competitive

00:33 swimming. But with every end of one chapter, we turn the page to a completely

00:39 new journey, a new chapter. And although a lot has happened in the last 25-26

00:44 years of my competitive career, I am looking forward and beyond excited to

00:50 the next 25, 30, 40 years of my future career. And this is where the real work

00:56 starts all over again. I still remember when I was four years old, I used to be

01:01 so excited hopping into an unreasonably freezing pool, seeing my

01:09 brothers and my sisters, my teammates, and being an only child that strikes a

01:13 different chord for myself. So fast forward to where we are today. I woke up

01:19 not feeling the same excitement to go to practice. I did not enjoy the grind

01:23 anymore. And one day I went to the office with mom, started encroaching onto the

01:29 work aspect of life, and I started feeling that same sense of excitement

01:34 again. And you start questioning yourself, okay is this gonna last for a day or two,

01:38 a week, a month? But that feeling kept going on and it kept burning brighter

01:43 and brighter. So that's when you really know that it is time to move on. I don't

01:49 like the connotation of retirement per se. I don't like it because it sounds

01:55 like there's nothing to look forward to next. As an athlete, we need to have

02:01 missions, we need to have goals. That goes the same for everyone. I want to be the

02:07 best in my field, no matter what I do, and I will continue putting the same amount

02:13 of effort, dedication, focus, everything I've learned from the pool, the people

02:17 I've met along the way, into this next phase of my career. Today I want to say

02:24 there for everyone here there are no questions off-limits. Let's have some fun

02:28 with it. Today is a sharing session. There is a reason why we didn't call this a

02:32 press conference in the invites. Obviously this looks like one, but we

02:39 wanted the vibe and the feel to be more family-oriented. The media has played a

02:44 really, really big part in my career. A lot of people speak negatively about

02:50 being in the media shadow or the media under the media lens, excuse me, but I

02:56 think the other way. I think this is a great chance, a great platform to inspire

03:00 others, to make or help the next generation get better. So this is exactly

03:08 what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do my best at inspiring the next generation, to all

03:14 the young swimmers or young athletes or it doesn't matter artists, whatever field

03:18 that you're in. I hope when they look back at my career they will just think,

03:23 just realize one thing, that nothing is impossible. There is no reason why a

03:27 person half a foot shorter than everyone else in the Olympic final around the

03:32 world should be where I am today. Physiologically, unlikely, but yet here we

03:39 are. So I hope to the young kids or even parents or whoever it is watching,

03:44 everyone, that you can draw some inspiration, confidence, and comfort in

03:50 knowing that the impossible is actually possible. Thank you guys.

The Straits Times | Schooling on his retirement: This is where the real work starts

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