On August 31, 2022, Singapore's only Olympic gold medallist, Joseph Schooling, confessed to consuming cannabis in Vietnam while on leave from national service, in a revelation that stunned the nation and abruptly curtailed the swimming star's career. The Ministry of Defence said the 27-year-old had confessed to consuming cannabis overseas in May, while on short-term disruption from full-time national service to train and compete at the Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, where he won two gold medals.
The case had come to light through the Central Narcotics Bureau, which investigated Schooling and handed management of the case to the Singapore Armed Forces as he was a full-time national serviceman. Although his urine tests for controlled drugs returned negative, his confession was enough to trigger formal disciplinary consequences. He was formally warned, placed on a supervised urine-test regime for six months, and told he would no longer be eligible for leave or disruption to train or compete for the rest of his national service. Any subsequent drug abuse could land him up to nine months' detention in barracks.
Schooling addressed the public in an Instagram story late that night, writing that he had given in to a moment of weakness after going through a very tough period of his life. He apologised for the hurt caused to his family and to the young fans who looked up to him, saying he had made a mistake, took responsibility, and would make amends. The tough period was widely understood to include the death of his father in 2021 after a liver cancer diagnosis, which had devastated the swimmer.
The fall from grace was especially stark given what Schooling had achieved. At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, he won Singapore's first and only Olympic title, taking gold in the 100-metre butterfly and beating the great Michael Phelps in the American's final Olympic race, a victory that made him a national hero. He had trained and studied at the University of Texas in Austin before returning home, but his form had already faded: at the Tokyo Olympics he was eliminated in the heats defending his title.
The episode also threw a spotlight on Singapore's uncompromising drug laws, among the toughest in the world and including the death penalty for traffickers. The government showed no inclination to soften its stance even as countries including nearby Thailand moved to decriminalise cannabis. Schooling was expected to miss the following year's SEA Games in Cambodia and the Asian Games in Hangzhou, and his confession effectively closed the book on the competitive career of the greatest swimmer Singapore has ever produced.