On This DaySingapore wins first ever Olympic gold in 2016 – SCMP archive
On this day 10 years ago, Joseph Schooling outswam Michael Phelps to bring Singapore its first Olympic gold medal
This article was first published on August 14, 2016.
Lion City celebrates first golden hero
by James Porteous
Singapore exploded into celebration as it feted a new sporting hero yesterday (August 13, 2016) after swimmer Joseph Schooling did the improbable – beat his one-time idol Michael Phelps – to win the Lion City’s first ever gold medal. Schooling completed a wire-to-wire victory to deny American Phelps a fourth successive title in the 100 metres butterfly, winning in an Olympic record of 50.39 seconds as Phelps, amazingly, dead-heated for silver with South Africa’s Chad le Clos and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary.
The 21-year-old Schooling also became an instant millionaire, collecting a cool S$1 million (HK$5.76 million) bonus as part of an incentive programme encouraging Singaporeans to excel in sport. The city state also offers a Foreign Sports Talent programme which grants promising foreign athletes citizenship.
“It’s been a hard road. I’ve done something that no one in our country had done before,” said Asian champion Schooling. “It’s been a tough road, I’m not going to lie. The first guy through the wall, it’s always bloody. I had to take that blow and I’m thankful and blessed that I have the ability to accomplish this.”
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong led the adulation, saying in a Facebook post: “It is an incredible feat, to compete among the world’s best, stay focused, and emerge victorious.” Singapore had only four medals (two silvers and two bronzes) to show for its efforts since it joined the Olympic fold in 1948. The first – a silver – was won by weightlifter Tan Howe Liang at the Rome Games in 1960.
“I hope this opens a new door, opens more doors for sports in our country and hopefully I set a precedent for a lot more guys to come up,” Schooling said. Schooling first met Phelps by chance as a 13-year-old when the US Olympic swim team visited Singapore in 2008, and the American helped inspire the young Singaporean to move to the US for extensive training. Schooling is now based at the University of Texas.