Joseph Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen to serve National Service after deferments end

Joseph Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen will have to enlist for National Service (NS), after their deferments ended on Aug 31, 2021. 

In a statement on Thursday (Sep 16), the Ministry of Defence said both swimmers will enlist after the necessary pre-enlistment procedures have been completed. 

“As their deferment until Aug 31, 2021 has ended, both Mr Schooling and Mr Quah will proceed to fulfil their NS obligations, as agreed to when they applied for deferment,” MINDEF said. 

Joseph has been on long-term deferment since 2014, while Zheng Wen was deferred in 2015. 

They were both due for enlistment in 2020 after the 2020 Olympics, As the Olympics were postponed until 2021, their deferments were extended. 

Both swimmers qualifying and representing Singapore at the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games. 

Joseph famously won Singapore’s first gold medal at the Olympics at the 2016 Games in the 100m butterfly event, setting a new record then. However, he did not manage to defend his title in the 2020 Olympics, crashing out in the heat.

Zheng Wen did not qualify for the finals in all his events at both the 2016 and 2020 Olympics.