Joseph Schooling

Joseph Schooling
PJG

Schooling at 2015 World Championships
Personal information
Full name	Joseph Isaac Schooling
National team	Singapore
Born	(1995-06-16) 16 June 1995 Singapore
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	74 kg (163 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Butterfly, freestyle, medley
College team	University of Texas (US)
Medal record Representing  Singapore Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 1 0 0 World Championships (LC) 0 0 1 Commonwealth Games 0 1 0 Asian Games 1 1 1 Southeast Asian Games 17 1 1 Total 19 3 3 Olympic Games 2016 Rio de Janeiro 100 m butterfly World Championships (LC) 2015 Kazan 100 m butterfly Asian Games 2014 Incheon 100 m butterfly 2014 Incheon 50 m butterfly 2014 Incheon 200 m butterfly Commonwealth Games 2014 Glasgow 100 m butterfly Southeast Asian Games 2011 Palembang 50 m butterfly 2011 Palembang 200 m butterfly 2013 Naypyidaw 100 m butterfly 2013 Naypyidaw 200 m butterfly 2013 Naypyidaw 200 m medley 2013 Naypyidaw 4×100 m freestyle 2013 Naypyidaw 4×100 m medley 2013 Naypyidaw 4×200 m freestyle 2015 Singapore 50 m butterfly 2015 Singapore 100 m butterfly 2015 Singapore 200 m butterfly 2015 Singapore 50 m freestyle 2015 Singapore 100 m freestyle 2015 Singapore 200 m medley 2015 Singapore 4x100 m medley 2015 Singapore 4x100 m freestyle 2015 Singapore 4×200 m freestyle 2011 Palembang 200 m medley 2011 Palembang 100 m butterfly

Joseph Isaac Schooling (born 16 June 1995) is a Singaporean swimmer. He is the gold medallist in the 100 m butterfly at the 2016 Olympics, attaining Singapore's first-ever Olympic gold.^[1] His winning time of 50.39 seconds is a national, Asian, and Olympic record.

He attended school and trained at the swimming powerhouse Bolles School in the USA. Schooling was educated at the Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and is currently studying at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is a member of the Texas Longhorns swimming team, one of the top collegiate swim programmes under two-time United States Olympic men's head coach Eddie Reese.^[2][3] Schooling holds the Asian and national record of 23.25 seconds in the 50 m butterfly at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships.^[4] He first qualified for the Olympics in 2012 after winning the 200 m butterfly at the 2011 SEA Games.^[5]

Personal life and family

Joseph Schooling, born and raised in Singapore, is a third-generation Singaporean.^[6] Joseph Schooling is the only child of May and Colin Schooling,^[7] and is of Eurasian ethnicity.^[7] May is a Chinese Malaysian and a Singapore Permanent Resident who had represented the Malaysian state of Perak in tennis;^[8] while Colin, a businessman born in Singapore and educated at Raffles Institution, was a hurdler and water polo player who represented Singapore in softball.^[8] His grand-uncle, Lloyd Valberg, was Singapore's first Olympian in the 1948 Summer Olympics.^[8] Schooling's great grandfather was a British military officer who married a Portuguese-Eurasian in Singapore.^[6]

Schooling's early years of education were spent at the Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) in Singapore. He next attended Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), but left for the United States in 2009, when he was 14 years old. He joined the Bolles School in Florida. In 2014, after completion of his high school education at Jacksonville, he enrolled at the University of Texas.^[9]

When he was 13 years of age, in 2008, the U.S. Olympic Swim Team turned up at a swim training camp in Singapore. They were on their way to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Schooling grabbed the chance to have a photo taken with his idol, Olympian swim champion, Michael Phelps, who up to this day, continues to be a source of inspiration in his journey to greatness in swimming. ^[10] Ironically he would later out-swim his idol in the 100 metres butterfly at the 2016 Summer Olympics, winning Singapore's first Olympic gold medal.^[11][12]

Schooling is a big football fan and considers Chelsea F.C. his favourite team. In an online interview released on Chelsea's website, Schooling spoke about his passion for the team.^[13][14]

Career

The first notable incident that could be said to have inspired Schooling to embark on his arduous Olympic journey, could be traced to a conversation he had with his relatives about his granduncle, Lloyd Valberg, Singapore's first Olympian at the 1948 London Games.^[15] That was when he decided he wanted to be an "Olympic Champion" too. He said to his father, " I want to go to the Olympics!" Colin Schooling, his father didn't imagine it as anything more than childish banter, so he simply nodded his head, replying , "Okay," until he was awakened one morning while the family was on a holiday in Ipoh, Malaysia.

It was 4am and dark outside, but little Joseph Schooling was shaking his dad's shoulders. He "needed" to go for training (in swimming) and his dad was to take him to the Ipoh Swim pool. That was when it struck Colin. His 8 year old son was serious, he meant what he said, he wanted to be an Olympic Champion.

Since then, Colin Schooling and his wife, May left no stones unturned to ensure that their only son be given all the help he needed to attain his Olympic dreams.

By the time Schooling was nine, it became clear that he had the ability to win medals at international swim competitions.

Colin researched books, schools, programmes, kept records of his son's progress in swimming, all times attained, trophies won at swim competitions.^[16] He even devised his own swim paraphernalia to help his son during swim training.

In the early part of his career, Schooling was trained by coaches and swimmers of Australia under the monitoring of Monash University in a Singapore Sports Council programme. The "Excel" centre was closed down in 2009, so the Schoolings began the search for an American Swim School that will nurture their boy to achieve his potential in swimming.

At the 2011 Southeast Asian Games, Schooling's 1:56.67 winning time in the 200 fly met the "A” qualifying mark for the 2012 London Olympics.^[13] Unfortunately, he did not qualify for the semi-finals after finishing poorly in his heats where swimming officials disallowed the use of his swimming cap and goggles.

Schooling was supposed to begin serving the Singapore's National Service from October 2013. This is compulsory for all able-bodied male youths at 18. His parents appealed to have it deferred until the end of 2016 Summer Olympic Games to ensure continuation of his training. Looking back today at Schooling' s achievement at the Rio Olympics, the Singapore Government could be said to have made a brilliant decision to grant the deferment (another first in Singaporean history).

Schooling was the first Singaporean to win a swimming medal at the Commonwealth Games, taking silver in the 100 m butterfly at the 2014 games in Glasgow.^[17]

2014 Asian Games

Schooling's major breakthrough finally came during the Incheon Asian Games of 2014; he clocked 51.76 seconds in the Men's 100-metre Butterfly Finals. Schooling's timing of 51.76 seconds was a new Asian Games Swim record. Notably, it was Singapore's first Asian Games gold in the category of "Men swimming" since Ang Peng Siong's 100 m freestyle gold at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi.

"I'm very happy with my performance. I'm so glad I could win Singapore's first gold medal of the Games, and I hope there will be more to come. I felt good prior to the race and managed to swim according to the race plan that Sergio Lopez (Schooling's coach) had planned. The support from the Singapore fans was fantastic as I could hear them cheering when I walked out from the call room and also not forgetting the overall team support that is always there for me," said the 19-year-old.^[18] Schooling had earlier won a bronze for the 200 m butterfly event, ending a 24-year medal drought for Singapore's male swimming event. He followed that by winning a silver in the 50 m butterfly event.

28th SEA Games

At the 28th SEA Games held in Singapore,^[19] Schooling took part in nine events, achieving gold and breaking Games Records in all of them too. Schooling's time of 22.47 seconds in the 50 m freestyle broke a 33-year national record (22.69 s) that was held by Ang Peng Siong, who had set it at the 1982 US Swimming Championships.^[20]

16th FINA World Championships

Schooling continued with his streak of achievements in the 2015 World Aquatics Championships. He advanced to the 50 m and 100 m butterfly finals, breaking the National Records for both events. In the 50 m butterfly event, he broke the Asian Record in the semi-finals before breaking it again in the finals with a time of 23.25 seconds, while in the 100 metres butterfly event, he broke the Asian Record in the Final, with a time of 50.96 seconds and in the process, won Singapore's first medal at the FINA World Aquatics Championships.^[21]

2016 Olympics

In the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Schooling, then just 21, struck gold in the 100 metres Butterfly in a time of 50.39 secs. It was the one and only gold medal Singapore has ever achieved in all of her 51 years in existence as a nation-state. 12 August 2016, a date that forever be etched in Singapore history .^[22] Schooling's time of 50.39 was 0.75 seconds faster than the 51.14 secs won by the trio of: Michael Phelps, Chad le Clos and László Cseh who tied for silver. It was the largest Olympic winning margin in the event since Mark Spitz's victory at the 1972 Summer Olympics. The time set a new Olympic record, beating Phelps' record of 50.58 seconds at the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was an Asian record (and thus a national record). Schooling's win is "third" on the all-time list of the 100 m butterfly world record. Only Phelps and Milorad Cavic had achieved better times. Schooling's Olympic record eclipsed the unofficial 'textile swimsuit' world best held by Ian Crocker at 50.40 (2005), before high-tech polyurethane and full-body (men) swimsuits (2008–2009) were banned by FINA from January 2010.^{[23][24][25][26][27][28]}

This was Singapore's first-ever Olympic gold medal and its first medal of any colour in swimming.^[29] Schooling was incidentally the first male swimmer in all of the Southeast Asian region to have won an Olympic gold medal in swimming.^[1]

The Singapore National Olympic Council awarded Schooling S$1 million (about US$740,000), 20% of which had to be "donated" to the Singapore Swimming as a prior condition of the "Map" rewards.^[30] Singapore's unique "rewards for sports excellence" could be said to be the world's largest Olympic cash prize.^[31] As a University of Texas collegiate swimmer Schooling is subject to the NCAA's strict rules against amateur sportsmen accepting monetary compensation. However, Schooling will likely receive his country's award since the NCAA had made an exception for awards of foreign students to help their sportsmen defray the high cost of sports training.^[32]

To mark Schooling's gold medal, a victory parade was held in Singapore and it was attended by massive crowds.^[33] Singapore has never had an Olympic champion, hence their enthusiastic "welcome home" gesture of love for their national sports "hero".

In the 100 m butterfly semi-finals on 11 August 2016, Schooling swam 50.83 seconds as the fastest qualifier for the final.^[34] The time was a personal best, a national record, an Asian record, and the fastest time then-recorded in 2016 for the event,^[34] but only for a day as Schooling bettered his time in the final.^[1]

In an interview with Channel NewsAsia, Schooling had credited and paid tribute to the unsung heroes behind his Rio success, such as nutritionist Kirsty Fairbairn, biomechanist Ryan Hodierne and high performance manager Sonya Porter.^[35]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joseph Schooling.

• Asian Games: Swimmer Joseph Schooling wins Singapore's first gold at Incheon Games