Joseph Schooling Swims Beyond His Olympic Shadow: ‘In The Past … You Can’t Dwell On It’

The Rio 2016 Olympics long gone, SwimVortex continues its look at the reflections of the champions and others who stepped up to the podium at the Games in August, at the things that flowed from success and plans already made for the follow-up.

After the men’s 50m freestyle and Anthony Ervin and the 100m freestyle and Kyle Chalmers, we turn to a swimmer who looks set to become the last man in history to keep Michael Phelps at bay: Joseph Schooling, the US-college-based ace from Singapore.

No getting round the top man at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games: Michael Phelps, the biggest hauler for a third Games in succession, his achievements including a longevity of excellence that delivered a daily reference to the GOAT as inspiration to the children who grew into podium placers and finalists in Rio and got to race alongside a man excelling in the pool before some of them had started primary school.

It was about this time four years ago that we heard murmurs of goals from those who had won at London 2012, including world records and follow-ups from Chad Le Clos, the South African who pipped Phelps for gold in the 200m butterfly. Le Clos went on to many fine moments, including world titles, world s/c records, Commonwealth and African crowns in the mix but always harder to do than say. There was no world long-course record and no 200m butterfly medal at Rio 2016. No shame, either: just to have such towering goals and work at them for four and more years is an achievement  in itself.

Le Clos was the first man with a clean record home in the 200m freestyle in Rio and, four years after shared silver with Evgeny Korotyshkin (RUS) at London 2012, shared silver with Phelps and Laszlo Cseh (HUN) in the 100m butterfly.

The man who roared a mane and more ahead of an historic shared silver to end them all (what odds?) was Joseph Schooling, the pupil who became the master.

Joseph Schooling on the way to Olympic gold – by Patrick B. Kraemer

Ian Crocker by Patrick B. Kraemer

Look at the clock 50.39, a world textile best, a speed inside the iconic 50.40 of Ian Crocker that Phelps was never able to get to in a textile suit (as we noted from Rio, who knows what might have happened in those summers of 2008 and 2009 had all things been equal and FINA had served its sport well).

Schooling’s long-term development coach and a man still involved with his program is Sergio Lopez, the Olympic bronze medallist for Spain over 200m breaststroke at Seoul 1988.  For the past two years, Eddie Reese, of the Texas Longhorns and a chap with more Olympic honours in his treasury than the vast bulk of nations can count, has been guiding Schooling daily – and as such played a hand in the achievements of the last two men to travel faster than Phelps over two laps ‘fly.

A good reason to get a Longhorn tattoo, which have since been joined by the Olympic Rings on Schooling’s skin. His mother, May, is unimpressed. Schooling told FoxAsia this week:

“The Olympic rings were initially the only thing that they’d let me get tattooed. But I explained the Longhorn tattoo and its significance. My dad loved it, but my mum’s still a little iffy on it. She actually really doesn’t like it. So I’m going to side with my dad on this one.”

He also got down to serious matters in the same interview, saying: “I don’t really think about Olympic records or Asian records or whatever record. The most important record to me is the world record. That’s my next target. Going into the Olympics, I thought I had a small shot at breaking 50secs. It was a long shot, sure. I knew I could be 50 low, but breaking 50 is a different story.

“I believed that I could and that’s the most important thing. You’ve got to believe before you achieve something. Taking down Michael’s world record is my next target.”

How realistic? Records are, of course, there to be broken, and one day someone will indeed taken down Phelps’ 49.82.

Remember the moment (as written on that day in Rome 2009):

Are you not entertained? Get me Russell Crowe on the line. Bring on the gladiators. Lions at the ready. Rome awaited a swimming hero – and it got two. Michael Phelps, 14 Olympic gold medals in tow, rocked the history of his sport in a raw display of pugilistic aggression to crack the 50sec barrier over 100m butterfly and drag his Serbian rival into uncharted waters with him.

It has been 33 years and 7 days since Jim Montgomery of the US sent a Montreal Olympics crowd into a frenzy with the first sub-50sec 100m freestyle swim. He wore nylon briefs at a Games that introduced goggles and vision to Olympic waters and witnessed what had remained a record of world records ever since, on 29. In Rome, there have been 39 so far.

In what will go down as the ultimate battle of the bodysuits before the performance-enhancing equipment is banned from January 1 next year, Phelps and Milorad Cavic surfed on a tide of strategy and raw score-to-settle aggression.

It was Mikey Maximus but hardly Milo Minimus.

Phelps’s coach Bob Bowman worked out that his charge had to be no more than 0.7sec behind the Serbian at the turn. The gap was 0.67sec.

Michael Phelps – by Patrick B. Kraemer

It looked like an impossible task, but with 20m remaining, Phelps and his poly-panelled suit surged, clawing back inches with every passing, almost technically perfect, stroke. He nailed the finish with a punch. The clock screamed: 49.84 WR – and a 49.95 for Cavic and his non-panelled full shiny number, not as close as the 0.01sec, but just as sensational. It was a boiling, toiling effort from both men. A rolling killer-whale of a finish by Phelps.

Here’s how the clock panned out:

49.82 – 23.36; 26.46 Phelps 49.95 – 22.69; 27.26 Civic

(L-R) Michael Phelps, Chad Le Clos and Laszlo Cseh – shared silver at Rio2016 – by Patrick B. Kraemer

And here’s the pace young Joe achieved in Rio seven years on:

50.39 – 23.64; 26.75 …

So, 0.28sec on the way out and 0.29sec on the way home. “You’ve got to believe before you achieve something.” Quite so. Schooling reached 50.39 at 21, three years younger than Phelps was at Rome 2009, the American’s best 100m at 21 going on 22 the 50.77 in which he claimed the 2007 world title.

For Schooling, it’ll take a stunning day with a following wind of faith, determination, dedication and eye-popping pain along the way to slice 0.58sec Rio off the sensational pace he mustered in Rio.

Leaving the wagers on will he, won’t he to the brave or foolhardy, what looks fairly certain is that Schooling is going to be the man to beat over 100m butterfly for a while to come, the Rio silver shared in 51.14, 0.04sec shy of the time in which Phelps claimed the 2003 world titles at 18 years of age.

Schooling will prepare for life, athletic and otherwise, as an Olympic champion pursuing new goals as a Longhorn with Reese, while Lopez, who guided the Rio champion-to-be at Bolles from 2007 to the end of 2014, is now back from a stint in Singapore in the U.S. as associate head coach at Auburn University working with Brett Hawke.

Says Schooling of his Olympic-Champion status: ” … it’s in the past … you can’t really dwell on things like that”.

What’s gone is gone – but hardly forgotten

As Phelps collected career Olympic medal No 27 in Rio, Schooling picked up his first Olympic prize ever: a golden start for a man who met Phelps as boy and will cherish not only that moment but this one for the rest of his life. The race was the race, the gold the gold, but to walk along the burning deck with three giants of the sport, each with a silver and a golden smile for each other to go with it was the thing that Schooling may one day tell his children and their children about. Said a beaming Schooling:

“Just being beside him. Walking alongside him and celebrating, I will cherish that for the rest of my life.”

Schooling and Phelps first met in 2008, when the US team were based in Singapore for a training camp before the Beijing Olympic Games as the winner of six golds in 2004 prepared to pick up a record …

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