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 SENSATIONAL
SCHOOLING
At the tender age of six, Joseph Schooling made up his mind that he would follow the
footsteps of his grand uncle, Lloyd Valberg, who represented Singapore (then
'Malaya')
at the 1948 London Olympics.
Through sheer determination, hard work and sacrifices,
he realised his dream when he represented Singapore at the 2012 London Olympics
(he was only 17 years old then), and then went on to do Singaporeans (especially
ACSians) proud by winning the first ever gold medal for Singapore at the recent 2016
Rio Olympics.
Since his breathtaking performance in Rio where he won the 100m Butterfly final in
Olympic record time, and in doing so beating the legendary Michael Phelps, who with a
tally of 23 Olympic gold medals to his credit, is considered to be the greatest Olympian
of all time, Joseph has been hogging the media.
When he returned to Singapore, he
received a hero’s welcome and was kept pretty busy with celebratory events which
included an open-top bus victory parade, being honoured in Parliament, a press
conference and visits to his alma mater, Anglo-Chinese School.
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On 13 August at 9.12am (Singapore time), Joseph Schooling showed the world, his countrymen and ACSians, what a small country like Singapore is capable of when he beat a field of world class swimmers in the 100m Butterfly final in an Olympic record time of 50.39 seconds. The historic feat was screened live at ACS (Independent) where more than 500 students, staff, alumni and parents from the ACS family of schools had gathered to cheer Joseph on. As the photos below suggest, there were some anxious moments before the race, and finally jubilation when Joseph became the Republic’s first Olympic gold medallist. 
