“But I won’t be competing in Tokyo”.
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COME Saturday 9.12am, millions of Singaporeans, including President Tony Tan and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, will have their fingers tightly crossed as Joseph Schooling (above) lines up for an extraordinary “first” – the first Singapore Olympics gold medal.
Phelps swam the butterfly third leg of a tight race, pushing the United States from second behind Great Britain up to first before freestyle specialist Nathan Adrian saw it home for gold in an Olympic record time of three minutes 27.95 seconds.
Singapore became the fourth country to win a first ever title here after Vietnam, Kosovo and Fiji.
A picture of Schooling meeting Phelps back in 2008 was widely shared on social media that not only provided a heart-warming moment between the pair but also displayed Phelps’s incredible longevity in the pool, having dominated the sport for the past 16 years. Read on to find out what we know. “I am not gonna be competing in four years”, Phelps said following his Friday performance. I guarantee he will be there. “I’m really honored and privileged to have swam alongside these great names, people that have changed the face of our sport”, said Schooling to Channel NewsAsia. “He’s prepared to train, and he gives an honest effort all the time”, said Bowman of Phelps. “And yeah. I’m ready to spend some time with (baby son) Boomer and (fiancee) Nicole”.
Phelps acknowledged during the interview he wasn’t exactly a “normal” teenager.
Phelps came second in the 100-metres butterfly and had to share silver with South Africa’s Chad Le Clos and Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh in a remarkable three-way dead-heat.
In 2015, he showed that he was going to be a medal contender for Rio when he finished third at the world championships in Russian Federation, albeit with Phelps absent.
Have you been watching the Rio Olympic Games?
Michael Phelps has said he has become more outspoken at the Rio Olympics as he embraces his role as a mentor to younger team-mates. In an interview with USA Today in 2014, Phelps discussed how boring retirement had been, proving Lochte may have known Phelps better than Phelps knew himself.
While Phelps’ defeat would normally have guaranteed all the headlines, it is a sign of the passing of the baton in USA – and indeed Olympic – swimming that Ledecky rightly claimed centre stage. Everyone had a job. I’d either go to the range and hit balls by myself. I’d never be home.
Hey, let me remind you this Schooling has the Olympics branding in his heart and soul: Grand-uncle Lloyd Valberg, a former world-class high jumper, was Singapore’s first ever Olympian (and official flag-bearer) at the 1948 London Games.
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Ayana’s record was greeted with suspicion by marathon world record-holder Paula Radcliffe, but the 24-year-old brushed off the speculation. “I can guarantee that”.
