She swam at four successive Olympics – Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004.
She flew the Singapore flag at four Asian Games (1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006), winning two bronze medals in the 100m butterfly.
She competed at eight South-east Asia (SEA) Games, making her debut as a 12-year-old in 1991 and, by the time she finished her last one in 2007, she had amassed a startling haul of 40 gold medals, a record that may never be broken.
Joscelin Yeo is now 37.
She retired in 2007 but life is probably as hectic, even if the glamour and excitement of competing and winning are no more.
Yeo is a full-time mother of three and is a vice-president (swimming) at the Singapore Swimming Association (SSA). She also works as a part-time counsellor at her church.
Today, Mother’s Day, will be like any other day for Yeo and her husband Joseph Christopher Purcell, as they do their best to keep up with sons Sean Christopher, David Benjamin and Michael Joseph.
HER BOYS
“With three boys, time passes very fast because they’re constantly moving and doing something; we’re talking about running the entire day,” she told The New Paper, smiling.
“I’m up whenever my kids wake up. Normally, my kids are up by 7 plus then I’ll get them ready for school. I take them to school and, on days I’m working, I’ll go to work from school and I work the full day.
“When I come back, it’s time with the kids but, on days that I don’t work then once they’re done with school, I’ll pick them up and spend time with them.
“They’ll have a short nap in the afternoon, go swimming or play any kind of sport and I’m with them until they go to sleep at night.
“I work out twice a week when they’re taking a nap. I fit my SSA work in between all this and, when there are meetings at night, I don’t get to put my kids to bed.”
Sean is five, David three and Michael is 15 months and one can imagine how mum chases after the three boys every day. Yeo is not slowing down, though.
She will stand for re-election at the SSA annual general meeting next month and wants to fulfil her long-term plan for swimming here.
“We’ve made a lot of changes at the high performance level and, with the grassroots level, we’re just starting,” she said.
“Whenever you start something new, there’s always a bit of inertia, but it’s starting to move along, which is really nice to see.”
Yeo is part of the team led by SSA president Lee Kok Choy who won a close election in June 2014.
The last two years have been stellar for Singapore swimming, with Joseph Schooling winning a bronze in the 100m butterfly at the world championships last year while the aquatics team plundered a record 23 gold medals at the 2015 SEA Games on home soil.
Former swim queen Yeo said the SSA has outlined development pathways for athletes to have a proper training cycle instead of burning out from too many meets.
“When you’re talking about grassroots, the base is much bigger, so it takes a lot longer to put the changes in place,” she said.
“We’ve already started to see a little bit of the success, so the next couple of years will be used to move forward with the plans that we have.”
These are exciting times for swimming, with Schooling and Quah Zheng Wen achieving automatic qualification for the Rio Olympics in August.
Like everyone else, Yeo hopes for a medal breakthrough in Rio, primarily via Schooling.
THE BASE
To keep the talent pool churning, Yeo’s aims to develop coaches and swimmers near the base of the pyramid.
“The base is always important because that’s where the mass come from, so there are gaps in the middle where we are losing possibly very talented swimmers,” she said
“Swimmers can only come up to the level that the coaches are at, and we don’t have enough coaches who are bridging that middle gap.
“Most of them don’t see a future because they don’t know how to move up, so we’re helping to shift the mindsets of coaches and raise their level.”
“There is a very exciting plan, but getting it going is always the challenge; working with different stakeholders and helping them to understand why we do it this way,” she added.
“It takes collaboration from many sectors, like the Singapore Sports Institute, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and ActiveSG.”
Yeo credits her husband for his support in all that she does.
“My family is my priority that’s why I work part-time and my SSA job is a volunteer job,” she said.
“Swimming has always been very close to my heart; it’s an opportunity to make a difference in the community.
“There are always elements of sacrifice here and there, but you make sacrifices for the things you value, and it makes your life fulfilling in that sense.”
This article was first published on May 8, 2016.
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