If you missed greeting Singapore’s Olympic gold medallist Joseph Schooling at the airport when he arrived in Singapore on Monday, Aug 15, don’t worry, here’s another chance.

A victory parade for our champion will be held on Thursday from 10am to 2pm with three pit stops.

The first will start at 10am at 50A Marine Terrace Market till 10.45am.

Then, from 11.30am to 12.15pm, Joseph will be at Singtel Comcentre Plaza.

He will then travel on an open top bus to greet members of the public along the way from Orchard Road to Bras Basah Road at 12.15pm to 12.45pm.

He will end off at Raffles City Shopping Centre from 12.45pm to 2pm.

Go say hello and congratulate Singapore’s Olympic champion.

spanaech@sph.com.sg

Hundreds give Joseph Schooling triumphant homecoming at Changi Airport

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The Straits Times, AFP, Reuters, The New Paper, Hannah Alkaff, Lianhe Zaobao

“When you want to be the best, you’ve got to believe you’re the best,” said Singapore’s Olympic champion Joseph Schooling.

It’s a simple thought but one that gets him through his races.

Just before he hits the water, he told AsiaOne at a press conference held at the Singapore Sports Hub today, that “at that point it’s all about confidence. So I like to think that ‘I can beat everyone’. It might sound cocky but it’s the kind of mindset you’ve got to adopt when you start racing.”

He said believing you’re the best is “the first step to achieving your goals. You got to believe. I tell myself ‘everyone’s got to chase me down, no way you’re going to beat me, you’re kidding me’. It’s got to be a little cocky but that’s fine, it’s good for racing.”

Hundreds give Joseph Schooling triumphant homecoming at Changi Airport

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The Straits Times, AFP, Reuters, The New Paper, Hannah Alkaff, Lianhe Zaobao, AsiaOne

During his epic 100m butterfly stroke Olympic race on Aug 13 Singapore time, Joseph said he had looked once at US’ Michael Phelps and South Africa’s Chad le Clos in the last 20 to 25m of the race and saw that he was ahead.

From then on, he said he looked straight down and focused on finishing.

“I didn’t think much about technique or my stoke count, and all that stuff. At that point it’s all racing, race to the wall, and thankfully I touched first.”

He did have a moment where he thought he lost it all. He said he had set himself up well when he started the race right up to when he made his turn.

“Unfortunately I was a little long at the turn and I thought I lost it all there. I thought ‘Oh gosh, you all are going to come back on me’. I thought I just lost all my speed.”

“But thankfully I had a good push off”, and as they say, the rest is history.

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The Straits Times, Reuters, AFP

Constantly being compared to 23-gold medalist Olympic star Michael Phelps, Joseph said he does not want to fill Michael’s shoe’s.

“I kind of want to make a mark for myself. I want to set my own tone. I don’t want to be compared to anyone. It feels great to be compared to someone like Michael but in the long run, I think want to make my own mark, [do it] in my own name.”

From a young age, Joseph had the dream to be an Olympic champion.

He said: “I had the dreams and aspirations to be an Olympic champion, to be the best in the world when I was 6 or 7. That’s always been my goal, to be the best in the world. And I’ve trained everyday to try to put myself in that position, and I’m very lucky and thankful that I could actually pull that off.”

To be a champion, other than mindset, the everyday regime counts for a lot.

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Twitter screengrabs, Facebook screengrabs, Facebook/SGAG

Joseph told the media at the press conference that a typical Monday, which is one of three heavy days he has in a week, during normal season, starts with practice from 6am to 7.30am. Then he runs over to the cafe for a quite bite to eat, then it’s to classes where he has two or three everyday.

Classes run from 9am to 12.30pm and then he runs straight to the athletic dining hall for a quick bite for no more than 20 to 30 minutes. This is because he has to be at the weight room from 1pm to 2.45pm.

Then he stretches a little bit and speed walks all the way to the pool. “Maybe a seven to 10 minute walk. I walk slow. I can’t walk (laughter from the media). Ya, swimmers right?” jokes Joseph.

After that he practises swimming in the waters from 3pm to 5pm, walks back to the dining hall for a 30- to 40-minute dinner and then marches it off when he goes one level down for study hall. There he will get tutor sessions or work on problems he has in his classes and does this everyday from 6pm to 9pm.

He goes home to study some more till “maybe midnight if I have to cram something in”, added Joseph, and does it all over again the next day.

What a champ!

spanaech@sph.com.sg

A deaf performer, who caught the eyes and touched the hearts of Singaporeans on National Day, had practised hand-signing of the songs for two months.

According to Lianhe Wanbao, Ms Neoh Yew Kim started practising intensively in June this year for a 55,000 audience during the National Day Parade.

She said: “If I forgot some of the movements, my friends would send me e-mails from the public to encourage me. I also gained new friends through this experience.”

The 22-year-old had lost her sense of hearing when she was one and underwent an operation. Since then, she has been wearing a hearing aid, Lianhe Wanbao reported.

Life for Ms Neoh wasn’t easy as she revealed that she was bullied online by students during her school days.

She also told the Chinese paper of her family situation. Her parents are divorced and she currently lives with her grandmother, sister and brother, who have become her pillars of support.

Ms Neoh said: “I plan to start my own YouTube channel and teach hand-signing through my tutorial videos and change certain prejudices about deaf people.”

stephluo@sph.com.sg

Netizens go gaga over pretty sign language instructor at NDP

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The Straits Times, YouTube screengrabs

SINGAPORE – Singapore’s first Olympic gold medallist, swimmer Joseph Schooling, said on Tuesday he was looking to beat the world record for 100 metres butterfly and planned to compete in two more events at the next Olympics in Tokyo.

After winning gold in Rio de Janeiro in the 100 metres butterfly last week and reaching the semi-finals in 100 metres freestyle, Schooling said he might also challenge in the 200 metres butterfly and the 200 metres individual medley (IM).

“Next goal, next step, besides breaking the record for 100 fly would be getting my 200 fly back. … I’ve got a good shot. I’ve been training for 200 fly, that’s why I can finish a 100 pretty well,” he told reporters after returning to a cheering crowd in his home country.

“I think 200 IM would be a good race. An all-around race for me,” added Schooling, sporting a new tattoo of the Olympic circles on his right biceps.

Hundreds give Joseph Schooling triumphant homecoming at Changi Airport

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The Straits Times, AFP, Reuters, The New Paper, Hannah Alkaff, Lianhe Zaobao

Schooling, 21, finished the 100 metres butterfly final in an Olympic record time of 50.39 seconds, ahead of his childhood idol Michael Phelps, South Africa’s Chad le Clos and Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh who all finished in 51.14 seconds for a joint silver.

Singapore, a Southeast Asian island nation of less than six million, had won only two silver and two bronze medals since it joined the Olympic fold in 1948.

Schooling has been lifted to national hero status with parliament passing a motion to recognise his achievements on Monday.

He is due for an open top bus parade on Thursday.

He thanked Phelps for his win.

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Twitter screengrabs, Facebook screengrabs, Facebook/SGAG

“Michael took me under his wing and … said: ‘look you’re so young, you’ve got so much ahead of you, don’t sweat it’ and that still sticks with me ’till today,” he told Reuters in a brief interview after the news conference.

As part of its Foreign Sports Talent programme, wealthy Singapore offers a S$1 million ($747,663) prize for gold medals.

Schooling, whose parents sold their house to fund his training, according to news reports, does not have specific plans on how to spend it.

“I’ll let my mum do that, she’s good with money,” he told Reuters.

He will focus on training for Tokyo instead.

“When I’m 25 I’m going to be at my peak. I’m going to be a lot stronger than I am now.”