Ahh, Joseph Schooling. Singapore’s first Olympic Gold Medalist, and all-round superstar.
Schooling even became a Hugo Boss Ambassador, an Ambassador for Milo, and started his own skincare line.
Schooling has become the most influential and noticeable athlete in Singapore. In fact, that spotlight on Schooling and him alone has led to Singaporeans not noticing our other impressive talents.
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Schooling ‘school-ed’ Michael Phelps when he defeated him for the Gold medal in the 2016 Olympics for the Butterfly category, shocking the world.
This led to expectedly higher expectations for the Olympic world-record holder.
Ironically, Schooling has just been ‘school-ed’ by fellow teammate Darren Chua, who has stolen Gold from the Olympic champion.
David and Goliath
This is one of the biggest upsets in the 2019 SEA Games, as Joseph Schooling entered as a favourite in the 100m Freestyle category.
After seeing his physical condition though, people were taken aback.
Schooling gained significant weight and was clearly not in his best condition.
However, he was still heavily favoured to take the Gold over the rest of the field.
That was until 19-year-old Darren Chua trounced him and beat him by five hundredths of a second.
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It was a seat-gripping and heart-pumping close match as the two Singaporean swimmers battled it out in the last few seconds.
Chua must have felt ecstatic about toppling a fellow teammate and world champion, almost like how Schooling felt when he took down Phelps.
The 19-year-old SEA Games gold medallist said that he “likes to prove people wrong” and relished the challenge.
Darren also had a point to prove. He was less powerful than the rest of his Avengers-like Singapore Swimming Team, and he stayed in Singapore to train, unlike the others who trained overseas.
He wanted to prove that he can still win Gold in his own way as an individual swimmer.
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Darren attributes much of his success to the support he gets from his family and school.
Studying in Temasek Polytechnic, the school has allowed much flexibility for Darren’s sports pursuits. For instance, it allowed the extension of his schooling years from three to five to accommodate his training.
Yeah, who can boast that his or her diploma is a five-year diploma?
His family also chipped in. Darren trains twice a day, and his father has to send him for his morning training at 5.30am. His mother wakes up even earlier to prepare food for him so that he can sneak in a little bit more sleep.
Next up, he has Olympic qualifications in his sights. We hope Darren will continue to do us proud.
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Bittersweet Results
The SEA Games results were bittersweet. It is encouraging because it shows that on balance, Singapore swimmers are extremely proficient, with a total of 23 Gold Medals.
However, it seems that the Olympic star has lost some of its lustre.
Joseph Schooling admits that he is not in his best shape, and not ready yet for the Tokyo Olympics. However, he is committed to ensuring that he will regain his fitness to defend his title at the Olympics.
He will be working with the Head of Sports Nutrition Dr Richard Swinburne to achieve his fitness goals.
Go Team Singapore! We are all rooting for you.
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