Golden Boy

Olympic champion Joseph Schooling talks fame, girls and how his medal sets Singapore on the Midas path.

- Alison De Souza

If you had an Olympic medal—the first gold ever won by your country, no less—you could be forgiven for letting it go to your head just a little. Yet, two years after his dream win at the Rio Olympics, swimmer Joseph Schooling seems to have his head firmly screwed on. It’s a remarkable fact, given that he is just 22 and became a national hero overnight (or, more precisely, 50.39 seconds flat; which is the time it took him to beat Michael Phelps and set a new games record for the 100m butterfly).

The swimmer has been road-testing his newfound fame at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, which has been home for the last four years. He competed for the school’s prestigious swim team as an undergraduate and, although he officially graduated with an economics degree last year, is still wrapping up his coursework. He will continue to train there for the foreseeable future.

Harper’s BAZAAR Singapore sat down with the Olympic champ during our poolside cover shoot in Los Angeles, where the unassuming star charmed the entire production team with his affable, obliging attitude as he modelled a pair of BOSS Swim shorts for the BAZAAR video—his favourite item from his capsule collection with BOSS, for whom he is the first Singaporean brand ambassador.

Having recently turned pro means that he can now accept endorsements (such as the tie-in with BOSS), so expect to see this Singapore icon associated with even more brands in the coming years. Day-to-day life, though, will continue much as before—and with a lot less glamour than one might think. “Going pro just means I’ve closed the chapter on collegiate swimming. But I’m still going to be training at the same place in Austin, and schedule-wise, it will be as busy or even busier,” he says.