No amount of cajoling, arm-twisting and pleading by his team mates and swimming fans around the world will make Michael Phelps change his mind about retiring after the Rio Olympics.
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Which is why it’s so tantalizing to imagine him still swimming in four years.
“It’s incredible that Singapore finally has a gold medal at the Olympics, I don’t think anyone thought this was possible”, Madeleine Lim, 62, told AFP. “I wrote my parents an email this morning just saying thank you and I started bawling on my bed and then my roommates came in and comforted me”.
Singapore exploded in celebration Saturday after homegrown swimming hero Joseph Schooling beat United States legend Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly in Rio to win the tiny republic’s first ever Olympic gold.
“So long you have the passion for it; put in the hard work; we are able to achieve something really great”, he said. I’m happy about it. He earned bronze in the 100 fly at last year’s world championships in Russian Federation, and he owns a slew of medals from the Asian, Commonwealth and Southeast Asian Games.
Earlier in the Rio pool, Joseph Schooling of Singapore led the men’s 100-meter butterfly from start to finish, edging out Phelps, who swam faster than he had done while winning the same event four years ago in London. He is 21 years old. He swept the 100 and 200 butterfly at this year’s NCAA championships and swam on all three winning relays for the Longhorns.
National record holder Carina Horn took second spot in her first-round 100m contest in 11.32 to reach the penultimate round and Alyssa Conley grabbed sixth place in her heat in 11.57, as her campaign came to an end. Schooling also told the newspaper and reporters after his Friday win that he would not be where he was today without meeting Phelps.
Fact 3: To further his swimming career, Schooling left Singapore when he was 13 and moved to Florida to train at the Bolles School, living in a boarding house with older boys.
Ledecky was victorious in the 800 metre freestyle by an nearly preposterous margin, the 19-year-old lowering her own world record to eight minutes, 4.79 seconds as she claimed her fourth gold of the Games.
The U.S. goalkeeper criticized the Swedes for the way they played in beating the Americans 4-3 in a penalty shootout following a 1-1 draw – a result that means the world’s top-ranked team will miss out on an Olympic gold-medal match in women’s soccer for the first time.
“As a kid I wanted to be like him”, Schooling said afterwards, “It’s insane to think of what happens in eight years”. “A real roller coaster ride and a real fun one, too”.
Phelps steered Schooling in the proper direction during the medalists’ parade around the deck, the veteran of dozens of such walks showing the newest champion the way. “I’ve received a lot of support and that’s phenomenal”. He told the New York Times that as a child, he aspired to be like Phelps, and credited the long-time Olympian as “the reason I wanted to be a better swimmer”. “Being in the water is a sanctuary for me, and I’m not going to give it up, regardless of whether I’m the best in the world, or not relevant”. Justin Rose of Britain is the third-round leader and will be trying to win golf’s first gold medal in 112 years.
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“Regardless what sports we do, he’s an inspiration to all of us”. “He said he was going to retire after 2012 and I was the only person who said he was going to come back again”, Lochte said. “I hope it shows that people from the smallest countries in the world can do extraordinary things”. Puig is looking for her territory’s first gold in any sport in Olympic history.
