Singapore wins first ever Olympic gold in 2016 – SCMP archive

This article was first published on August 14, 2016.Lion City celebrates first golden heroby James PorteousSingapore exploded into celebration as it feted a new sporting hero yesterday (August 13, 2016) after swimmer Joseph Schooling did the improbable – beat his one-time idol Michael Phelps – to win the Lion City’s first ever gold medal. Schooling completed a wire-to-wire victory to deny American Phelps a fourth successive title in the 100 metres butterfly, winning in an Olympic record of 50.39 seconds as Phelps, amazingly, dead-heated for silver with South Africa’s Chad le Clos and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary.Joseph Schooling of Singapore (right) shares a moment with Michael Phelps of the United States after winning the men’s 100-meter butterfly. Photo: KyodoThe 21-year-old Schooling also became an instant millionaire, collecting a cool S$1 million (HK$5.76 million) bonus as part of an incentive programme encouraging Singaporeans to excel in sport. The city state also offers a Foreign Sports Talent programme which grants promising foreign athletes citizenship.