Joseph Schooling

Personal life and family

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

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.

In October 2016, Schooling received the Pingat Jasa Gemilang (Meritorious Service Medal) for his exceptional achievements at the Rio Olympics 2016 by winning Singapore’s first ever Olympic gold medal in the men’s 100m butterfly.

On August 7, 2017, an Orchid was named after Schooling; Dendrobium Joseph Schooling is a "vigorous and free flowering" hybrid with yellow and slightly twisted petals.

Career

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.

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. 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 is 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.

2014 Asian Games

Schooling's major breakthrough finally came during the Asian Games, where he clocked 51.76 seconds in the 100 m butterfly finals. Schooling's timing of 51.76 seconds was a new Asian Games record. It was Singapore's first Asian Games gold in the men's category since 1982. 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, Schooling took part in nine events, achieving gold and breaking Games records in all of them. 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.

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 m butterfly event, he broke the Asian Record in the finals, with a time of 50.96 seconds. His bronze medal was Singapore's first ever medal at the FINA World Aquatics Championships.

2016 Olympics

On August 12, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Schooling won a gold medal in the 100 m butterfly with a time of 50.39 seconds, the first Olympic gold medal won by Singapore. The time set a new Olympic record, beating Phelps' record of 50.58 seconds at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

In the semi-finals on August 11, 2016, Schooling swam 50.83 seconds as the fastest qualifier for the final. The time was a personal best, a national record, an Asian record, and the fastest time then-recorded in 2016 for the event, but only for a day as Schooling improved his time in the final.

The Singapore National Olympic Council awarded Schooling S$1 million (about US$740,000) under the Multi-Million Dollar Award Programme (MAP), 20% of which had to be ploughed back to the Singapore Swimming Association for future training and development. Singapore's unique "rewards for sports excellence" is deemed to be the world's largest Olympic cash prize. 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 as it fell within the NCAA exception of awards to foreign students which allow the high cost of sports training to be defrayed.

To mark Schooling's historic gold medal, a victory parade was held in Singapore and it was attended by massive crowds.

Schooling's performance in Rio was listed in swimming magazine Swim Swam's Top 10 Swims Of 2016. He came in at No. 4, after Hungarian Katinka Hosszú (400 IM, Rio Olympics), American Katie Ledecky (800 m freestyle, Rio Olympics), Briton Adam Peaty (100 m breaststroke, Rio Olympics).

17th FINA World Championships

Schooling swam 3 events (50 m, 100 m butterfly and 100 m freestyle) in Budapest. He broke his own Asian record twice in the 50 m butterfly heats (23.05 sec) and semi-finals (22.93 sec). He clocked 22.95 sec in the finals to finish 5th. He missed out on 100 m freestyle semi-final after finishing 17th in the heats. In the 100m butterfly finals, Olympic Champion Schooling was the favourite to win the event but Caeleb Dressel was too dominant from the heats to the finals. Dressel clocked 49.86 sec in the final to eclipse Schooling's world textile best time of 50.39 sec, set in Rio Olympics. Caeleb's time was 0.04 sec shy of Michael Phelps legendary supersuit World Record. Schooling obtained a joint-Bronze medal with Briton James Guy with a time of 50.83 sec.

29th SEA Games

Schooling swam six events at the 29th SEA Games held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He won all his events and broke four South-east Asian records (50 m, 100 m butterfly, 4 × 100 m freestyle relay & 4 × 100 m medley relay).

Accolades