In the athletes’ bus, his stomach is a knot of tension.
It’s Friday, Aug 12, 2016. It’s his final day at the Rio Olympics. It’s him versus Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly. He’s on his way to the Estadio Aquatico Olimpico and it’s the only time nerves assault Joseph Schooling.
“The bus ride,” he tells me “was probably the hardest thing that I had to mentally overcome.” All that his parents had done, the sacrifices they’d made (and he’d made), the money that had been spent, all that was on the line.
“It was all bunched up into one ball, sitting in your gut, on the way to the Olympic final.
“That was insane.
“I felt like I was having these flashbacks. And I had to pull myself together. Once I started my warmup routine, everything just kind of flowed.”
It’s 2024 and we’re in a room at the Chinese Swimming Club as Schooling rewinds the greatest moment in Singapore sport. A 21-year-old from Marine Parade against 42 elite swimmers from 31 Olympic teams.
By August 2016 he’s ready, but in June he’s grumpy. The road to gold is paved with pain, challenge, bumps, ego. Fortunately legendary coaches, like Eddie Reese at the University of Texas, know how to tweak champions.
They’re in their six-week taper phase and Schooling doesn’t like the 10x300m set Reese has ordered. It’s not, he says, what you do at taper time. He gets out of the pool, stares at Reese, storms into the locker room.
“(Eddie) comes in, he grabs the back of my head, like a grandfather. And he’s like, ‘why are you leaving?’ I said ‘Eddie, I shouldn’t be doing this right now. I can’t see straight, I’m tired and we just started taper. Like, what part of that do you not understand?’ I was really rude about it. And Eddie very calmly, just looked at me and smiled.”
Gently Reese pulls him back to the pool and says “OK, OK, you’re right. I got this one wrong” and he alters the set to 5x150m. Schooling, quickly contrite, learns a lesson. “If the best coach in the world trusts my decisions, then I need to change the way that I speak to people... But he gave me that confidence to do so.”
In Rio, Schooling flies. He is fastest in the heats and semi-finals, with times of 51.41sec and 50.83sec. No one else goes below 51 seconds. But now is finals day, the bus ride, the tension, the warmup and the call room. Mum May is in the stands. Dad Colin is at home in Singapore. The start time is officially 10.12pm.
“I was just listening to music, had my hood on, zoning in. I have a great deal of respect for Michael and I went up and gave him a fist bump. He looked at me and gave me a fist bump as well.” Everyone, he feels, was thinking, “about how I was going to swim. And that was going to dictate (it)... they were fighting for second place almost.”
Schooling emerges last during the introductions, tapping his heart, and an Australian commentator says: “It is a pressure to be the fastest qualifier.” He’s in lane 4. On one side, in lane 5, is Chad le Clos, 200m butterfly gold from 2012. On the other, in lane 2, is Phelps, with the most gold medals – 23 once the Games ends – in Olympic history.
This doesn’t play in Schooling’s mind?
“Actually I love it, I love it.”
Phelps is greater, Schooling is fresher. The American is 31, the Singaporean 21. The American’s had eight races so far in Rio, Schooling half as many.
The buzzer sounds. He – reaction time 0.61sec – is equal first off the blocks. History’s chase begins.
The Singaporean’s first 50m takes 23.64sec and it’s not perfect. “I didn’t time my last stroke correctly into the wall so I had to glide into the wall a little bit.” Still he’s first at the halfway mark. Aleksandr Sadovnikov, who eventually finishes last, is second at 23.96sec. Phelps is sixth at 24.16sec.
Everyone’s turning, exploding, the water churning, but Schooling knows where he is.
“I have a really bad habit. I like to peek.”
The marginally imperfect turn takes only a fraction of momentum away from Schooling because he’s flying. “I remember being underwater and just feeling this surge of energy, like going into hyperdrive and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m just gonna rip this next 50’.
“And that’s when I knew.”
He finishes first, slaps the water, is hugged by Phelps and has his hair tousled by le Clos. His mother holds a Singapore flag and wears a wide smile.
His time, 50.39sec, is an Olympic record and in a stunning coincidence Phelps, le Clos and Laszlo Cseh are joint second at 51.14sec. The gap between first and second is 0.75sec and it’s the largest margin since 1972. The winner then was a fellow named Mark Spitz.
Schooling will get his medal, hear his anthem, and return to Singapore. He’s exhausted and initially he’s reluctant to go on the open-top bus parade. “What I did not know was all the streets are lined, there are thousands of people. It was a big deal.”
He thinks perhaps people in Singapore don’t care, but he sees the crowd at the airport and on the streets and it puts things in perspective. “It makes you appreciate what you’ve actually done. And you need to share this.”
But before he returns to the embrace of his nation, there is a night and morning in Rio he’ll never forget. After the race as he walks on the pool deck he has a private conversation with Phelps.
“I whispered to him, ‘this is awesome. And you’ve done this 22 times, that’s crazy’. And he’s like, ‘yeah, it’s pretty cool looking back at it’.” Phelps asks Schooling what his plans are for the night and the tired Singaporean replies he’s just going to sleep.
Phelps smiles. “You’re not going to sleep.”
And he was right, says Schooling. “I tried to sleep, but I couldn’t. And I was thinking the entire time, ‘Ok, what just happened?’ I couldn’t believe it.”
The next morning before he flies off, he has a “sacred” moment all to himself. A moment to be proud of what he has accomplished. He walks to the dining hall alone, has a bowl of cereal, watches the sunrise and a thought streaks through his brain.
“Wow, my life is never going to be the same again.”
