When his plane touched down at 5:30 a.m., Changi Airport performed a water gun salute, and he walked out while wearing his gold medal, reports Today. “Thank you everyone for coming”.
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After his win, one of Schooling’s former Tinder matches suddenly lamented her regrets when she tweeted about her lack of responses to Schooling when she had the chance to follow through more promptly with him back in April.
He was still signing autographs more than an hour later.
Several events have been planned in honor of Schooling’s triumphant return, including a visit to Parliament, where he will meet Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who will call a motion to officially recognise his achievement.
Schooling’s request for another deferment from national military service was approved, the Armed Forces Council said on Monday, paving the way for the young swimmer to train and compete in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
And Singapore’s Changi Airport celebrated it in a unique way. With this, the Singaporean denied Phelps his 23rd Olympic gold.
Some waited from midnight to catch a glimpse of Schooling, whose flight home landed at 5:35 am. “So I telephoned his parents and got in touch with him and said what can we do together?”
Schooling, who is based at the University of Texas, won ahead of his idol Michael Phelps and Fairbairn watched it at home with family and friends. One the one hand, she’s matched one of the biggest success stories of the Olympic games – her “greatest accomplishment”.
After he broke nine national records at last year’s South East Asian Games and finished third at the world championships in Russia, Fairburn said the duo met to discuss what needed to be done a year out from Rio. Singapore waited 28 years before winning its next medal, a silver in table tennis at Beijing in 2008.
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NOT ALL THAT GLITTERS IS GOLD – Olympic gold medalist Singaporean swimmer Joseph Isaac Schooling puts his arm around his “yaya” of 19 years, Filipina Yolanda “Auntie Yolly” Pascual, in this photo grab from the YouTube post of Singapore Telecom.
