Joseph Schooling

On August 12, 2016, Singapore’s sporting history changed forever, when Joseph Schooling won gold at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in the 100-metre butterfly event at under 51 seconds, breaking multiple records including the Asian and Olympic records. The Little Red Dot’s first Olympic gold medallist, he was 21 at the time.

That glorious win, however, did not stop Schooling from further achieving his goals in the pool. These include finishing joint third in the 100-metre “fly” at the FINA World Championships in Budapest in 2017, and clinching gold for the same event in 2018 at the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. Schooling has sports in his blood—dad Colin represented Singapore in softball; mum May was a noted tennis player for Malaysia; and grand-uncle Lloyd Valberg was Singapore’s first Olympian at the 1948 London Olympics, competing in the high jump. At the age of 14, Schooling junior enrolled at The Bolles School in Florida for training.

The 26-year-old, who studied economics at The University of Texas at Austin, is the founder of Swim Schooling that nurtures aspiring young swimmers. As Hugo Boss’ first Singaporean ambassador, Schooling collaborated with the German label on a limited-edition capsule collection, with 15 per cent of the proceeds donated to the Schooling Sport Academy, founded by the Schooling family in 2017.