On Wednesday (Apr 12), when he fielded questions from CNA on the drug controversy, Teong said he confronted “the darkest deepest demons” during that period.
He told himself he would turn the bad into good. “So that next time one day down the road, I can tell people – I went through shit, you can too. You can become better.”
SportSG issued Teong, Schooling and Lim letters of warning, and suspended support for the three swimmers for a month. This meant that the three carded athletes under the high-performance scheme did not receive training assistance grants or have access to sports science and sports medicine facilities and services.
Teong said he has always been a positive person.
“When it rains, I like to run in the rain because it makes me feel good. So in using that analogy – it was raining, it was a thunderstorm, (there was a) tornado,” he said.
Months later, Teong finished fourth in the final of the men’s 50m butterfly at the 2022 FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Melbourne. His time of 22.01 seconds equalled the Asian record he set a day earlier in the heats.
“I may not have achieved my goal of breaking the world record, but I think I can probably say that I went there and achieved things that most people would have … shied away from,” he said.
Since December last year, Teong has been especially active on Instagram, sharing photos and videos of his training sessions, workouts and approach to swimming.
While the swimmer never saw himself as a public figure previously, Teong now recognises that it comes with the territory and tries to use his public persona to inspire others.
“Now I’m trying to turn it around and to see maybe how I can inspire people. So that’s why I’ve been trying to grow my Instagram (following),” he said.
“It came to a point where, you know what … I just chose to deal with it and move on.”
Teong has never been one to dwell on things that already happened.
After becoming the first Southeast Asian swimmer to go under 22 seconds in the 50m freestyle at the 2022 SEA Games in Hanoi, he told CNA in May last year: “Bad races, good races. Honestly, you just learn from it and then you try to get better.”
The same applies to his past.
“You cannot discount your past, you cannot regret your past. You are where you are now because of that,” said Teong.