When The Pupil Becomes The Master: Joe Schooling & The Triple Silver To End ’em All

If he sticks to his word, Michael Phelps’ Olympic journey will end this evening in the medley relay. Come what may, he will have 28 medals and at least 23 of them will be gold, Rio having delivered four, with a fifth on the horizon if the United States can keep the rest of the best of medley quartets at bay.

The one that got away was priceless, Joe Schooling the pupil who became the master: 50.39 world textile best inside the iconic 50.40 of Ian Crocker that Phelps was never able to get to in a textile suit (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).

And then there was the triple silver: Michael Phelps, Chad Le Clos, Laszlo Cseh – snap. Producer: “I’ve had a great idea; we’ll get a kid from Singapore to win the Olympic 100 fly ahead of Phelps and Phelps will tie for silver with two of the biggest challengers of his career to mark the solo swansong of his 16 years as a giant of the Games … what dya think?” Backer: “Oh, shut up.”

Yet there it was – and what a moment to devour, history unfolding before our very eyes. 51.14, all three, and those three at that. Two of them the face of Omega. The days of digital. Snap. No questions. The book of Olympic history is stacked with finals that have 2, 3 and even four swimmers with the same time but in the days of the naked eye decision, a bloke in a blazer would grant the thumbs up and thumbs down when it came to which gladiator got what.

One fine day when we are no more, a reporter will sit in this spot and turn to a colleague sitting next to him and say ‘wow, that must have been pretty special’. And he’d be right. It was.

Laszlo Cseh, Chad Le Clos, Michael Phelps – the history men – by PBK

As Phelps collected medal No 27 of his career, 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 eight and race beyond the 36-year-old Spitzean height of seven.

“They came to the country club that I trained …

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