Singaporean Olympic swimming champ apologies for alleged remark about 'teaching Malaysians a thing or two' about swimming.
SEPANG: Singaporean Olympic champion Joseph Schooling has apologised for a remark he made ahead of his Kuala Lumpur SEA Games (KL2017) campaign.
The 22-year-old was alleged to have made remarks “about teaching Malaysians a thing or two” on his return to Singapore recently from the World Championships in Budapest. The remarks triggered a negative response from Internet users in both Malaysia and Singapore.
“Those words have definitely been taken out of context and I am here to swim and if I ever offended anyone, I apologise for that. It wasn’t really my intention.
“But what is important now is everyone is here safe and we are ready to swim and to do our best for Singapore,” he told a press conference upon his arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) here tonight.
Schooling upset American swimming legend Michael Phelps in the men’s 100m butterfly at the Rio Olympics last year.
Meanwhile, when asked about Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s comments recently urging Malaysians not to be over sensitive about the remarks, Schooling said Khairy had shown true sportsmanship when he said that.
“Minister Khairy was awesome to say that, we didn’t ask him to say it but it shows what a true sportsman the guy is to his Singapore counterparts,” he said.
The Games’ swimming events are scheduled from Aug 21 to 26 at the National Aquatic Centre in KL Sports City, Bukit Jalil.
The 29th edition of the Games officially opens tomorrow with 404 sporting events across 38 sports. -FMT
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