Deep Dive

Post-retirement, Singapore's sole Olympic gold medallist Joseph Schooling shares reflections on his sporting career, navigating life after swimming, and how his winning mentality remains even outside the pool

- Hashirin Nurin Hashimi

He is Singapore’s first and only Olympic gold medallist, and when we ask Joseph Schooling about the one proudest moment that not many know about, “I’d say it’s the 2011 Southeast Asian (Sea) Games men’s 200‑metre butterfly”, he says. The then 16‑year‑old had clinched the gold medal in the event and it was the ticket that booked his spot at the London 2012 Olympics—his first Olympics.

“At the halfway mark, I was thinking and feeling it internally, ‘This hurts so much’. But I shut my brain off and just went for it.

No thinking, no hesitation,” he shares with Tatler Singapore via email. “And that’s what everyone saw, the ticket to the Olympics. But they don’t understand or realise the internal battle that I had to fight during that race, and the conscious decision I made to push through my pain boundaries. So that’s one of my proudest moments on a personal level.”

It was the turning point in his quest for Olympic glory. Nearly five years later, at the Rio 2016 Olympics, Schooling made the nation proud when he delivered Singapore’s first‑ever Olympic gold in the men’s 100‑metre butterfly with the record time of 50.39 seconds. He not only beat American defending champion Michael Phelps, but also Hungarian László Cseh, a five‑time Olympic medallist, and South African defending world champion Chad le Clos. All three had clocked 51.14 seconds and tied for silver.