Joseph Schooling

Joseph Schooling

Schooling at Southeast Asia Games 2013
Personal information
Full name	Joseph Isaac Schooling
National team	Singapore
Born	(1995-06-16) 16 June 1995 Singapore
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	74 kg (163 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Butterfly, freestyle, medley
College team	University of Texas (U.S.)
Medal record Men's swimming Competitor for Singapore World Championships (LC) Kazan 2015 100 m butterfly Asian Games Incheon 2014 100 m butterfly Incheon 2014 50 m butterfly Incheon 2014 200 m butterfly Commonwealth Games Glasgow 2014 100 m butterfly Southeast Asian Games Indonesia 2011 50 m butterfly Indonesia 2011 200 m butterfly Myanmar 2013 100 m butterfly Myanmar 2013 200 m butterfly Myanmar 2013 200 m individual medley Myanmar 2013 4x100 m freestyle relay Myanmar 2013 4x200 m freestyle relay Singapore 2015 50 m butterfly Singapore 2015 100 m butterfly Singapore 2015 200 m butterfly Singapore 2015 50 m freestyle Singapore 2015 100 m freestyle Singapore 2015 200 m individual medley Singapore 2015 4x100 m medley relay Singapore 2015 4x100 m freestyle relay Singapore 2015 4x200 m freestyle relay Myanmar 2013 4x100 m medley relay Indonesia 2011 100 m butterfly

Joseph Isaac Schooling (born 16 June 1995) is a national record holding Singaporean swimmer. He had qualified for the 2012 Olympics after winning the 200 fly at the 2011 SEA Games.^[1] He attended school and trained at the swimming powerhouse, The Bolles School, in the USA. Schooling was also 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]

Personal life and family

Joseph Schooling is a third-generation Singaporean,^[4] and is of Eurasian ethnicity.^[5] He is the only child to May and Colin Schooling.^[5] May is a Malaysian Chinese and a Singapore permanent resident; while Colin, a businessman, was also born in Singapore and educated at Raffles Institution. Colin's grandfather was a British military officer who married a local Portuguese-Eurasian in Singapore. Amid discontent over foreign-born athletes competing for Singapore, Colin rejected online descriptions of his son as a foreigner.^[4]

He is also a big football fan and counts Chelsea as his favourite team. In an online interview released on Chelsea's website, Schooling spoke about his passion for the newly crowned EPL champions.^[6][7]

Career

At the 2011 Southeast Asian Games, Schooling's 1:56.67 winning time in the 200 fly was under the “A” qualifying mark for the 2012 London Olympics.^[6] Unfortunately, he did not manage to qualify for the semi-finals after finishing poorly in his heats where swimming officials disallowed him to use his swimming cap and goggles.

Schooling had originally been enlisted into the National Service on October 2013, but was deferred till the end of 2016 Summer Olympic Games. He became 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.^[8]

2014 Asian Games

Schooling's major break though finally came when he clocked a timing of 51.76 seconds in the men’s 100 metre butterfly final to clinch Singapore’s first gold medal at the Incheon Asian Games. Schooling’s timing of 51.76 seconds was then a new Asian Games record. The result is also Singapore’s first Asian Games gold in men’s swimming since Ang Peng Siong’s 100m freestyle gold at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi. Schooling’s timing of 51.76 seconds bettered his timing in the heats, where he clocked 52.83 seconds to lead the field. “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.^[9] Schooling has earlier won a bronze for the 200m butterfly event, ending a 24-year medal drought for Singapore’s male swimming event. He followed that up with yet another impressive showing by winning a silver for the 50m butterfly event.

28th SEA Games

In the 28th SEA Games that had been held in Singapore, Schooling took part in 9 events, bagging all 9 golds in fashion - breaking 9 Games records at the same time. Schooling’s time of 22.47 seconds in the 50m freestyle smashed a 33-year national record (22.69s) that was previously held by Singapore swimming legend Ang Peng Siong, who had set it at the 1982 US Swimming Championships.^[10]

16th FINA World Championships

Schooling followed up on this form in the recent 2015 World Aquatics Championships. He advanced to the 50m and 100m butterfly finals, breaking the National Records for both events each time since participating in the heats. In the 50m butterfly event, he also broke the Asian Record in the semifinals before breaking it again in the finals with a time of 23.25 seconds, while in the 100m butterfly event, he again broke the Asian Record in the finals with a time of 50.96 seconds and in the process, won Singapore's first medal at the FINA World Aquatics Championships.^[11]

References

^[12]

External links

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