GREATEST MOMENT IN S'PORE SPORT

A look back at the day Joseph Schooling beat Michael Phelps in the 1OOm butterfly and ruled the world

- Rohit Brijnath

 In the athletes' bus, his stomach is a knot of tension.

It's Friday, Aug 12, 2016. It's his final day at the Rio Olympics. It's him versus Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly. He's on his way to the Estadio Aquatico Olimpico and it's the only time nerves assault Joseph Schooling.

"The bus ride," he tells me "was probably the hardest thing that I had to mentally overcome." All that his parents had done, the sacrifices they'd made (and he'd made), the money that had been spent, all that was on the line.

"It was all bunched up into one ball, sitting in your gut, on the way to the Olympic final. "That was insane.

"I felt like I was having these flashbacks. And I had to pull myself together. Once I started my warmup routine, everything just kind of flowed." It's 2024 and we're in a room at the Chinese Swimming Club as Schooling rewinds the greatest moment in Singapore sport. A 21-yearold from Marine Parade against 42 elite swimmers from 31 Olympic teams.

By August 2016 he's ready, but in June he's grumpy. The road to gold is paved with pain, challenge, bumps, ego. Fortunately legendary coaches, like Eddie Reese at the University of Texas, know how to tweak champions.

They're in their six-week taper phase and Schooling doesn't like the 10x300m set Reese has ordered. It's not, he says, what you do at taper time. He gets out of the pool, stares at Reese, storms into the locker room.

"(Eddie) comes in, he grabs the back of my head, like a grandfather.

And he's like, 'why are you leaving?" I said 'Eddie, I shouldn't be doing this right now. I can't see straight, I'm tired and we just started taper.