Yahoo Finance Singapore has everything it needs for more Olympic success: Sergio Lopez
Singapore has “everything” – the facilities, the infrastructure – to emulate Schooling’s success in the wake of his triumph, says outgoing head coach Sergio Lopez.
In the aftermath of the 21-year-old Joseph Schooling’s historic gold-medal win at the Olympics, there is a renewed belief that the country is capable of producing similar successes on the world stage in future.
“When I first came here and told everyone I wanted to change the mindset that education is the most important, many people said ‘good luck’,” said the Spaniard.
“But now... I think you are in a situation where people want to be successful, where parents want their kids to be successful. So parents, if they can see that there is a path that makes sense at the end, that they (kids) will be able to succeed in school and [also] as athletes - I think the parents are really open to [doing] that and this is really important.
“I think what needs to be done is to just keep embracing what we have [already] done.”
Lopez’s legacy
Lopez named the swimmers in the National Training Centre (NTC) squad – a centralised training programme for selected swimmers established at the start of his tenure last January – as an example of mindsets that have already started changing.
“I think, the 33 swimmers we have in the NTC, now they think differently,” he said. “And I think if we embrace that thought process, you will have maybe three or four [of them] swimming at a very high level [eventually] to put you on the map.
“If you take care of them, speak with them, in the sense of trying to understand them… they appreciate that and in the end, they will trust you.”
However, he was careful to warn parents that they should not push their children to be “a Joseph Schooling”, referring to the reported increase in number of sign-ups for swimming classes after his gold-medal feat.
The 48-year-old also described his tenure in Singapore as a “rewarding” one and was particularly satisfied with how he has convinced some senior national swimmers to carry on their athletic careers, listing the likes of Roanne Ho, Amanda Lim, Quah Ting Wen and Pang Sheng Jun.
“I see a group of kids that, when I first got here, were going to stop swimming six months later,” he recalled.
“They were thinking about swimming until the SEA Games [last year]… and now they are thinking about [swimming until] 2018 (Asian and Commonwealth Games) or 2020 (Olympics).
“So that’s a big thing, being able to make them understand that it’s okay, you don’t have to be an Olympic champion - [just] make sure you do it because you want it.”
Lopez is taking up an associate head coaching role at Auburn University, but says he is open to the idea of consulting for the Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) in future. His parting advice was for Singapore to “stay the course” – a mantra he has often repeated.
“If you always try to find the latest gimmick, latest gadget and things like that, you will get lost,” he said. “So you stick to what you need to do, what you believe – that is very important.”
