Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who is easily the coolest man in Singapore, has got it all figured out.

In a Facebook post on Aug. 14, a day after the phenomenon known as Joseph Schooling won Singapore's first Olympic Gold medal, he has some advice on how to create more Joseph Schoolings in Singapore.

To put it succinctly, this is what Tharman wrote:

Find something that we can each be good at. Persevere over the years. Then pass the passion on to the next generation.

This is his post:

This is what Tharman wrote:

“I just used to giggle and found that I really liked being in the water.” That’s how it all started, when Colin and May Schooling pushed their 3-year old Joseph under water to get him to learn how to tread water. They also got Vincent Poon to coach him. He taught Joseph to swim, to be fearless, and as Colin Schooling recalls, to have the hunger to win. Vincent himself remembers how, when Joseph started winning easily, he made him start 10 seconds after the others, and to race against bigger kids - so that he would sometimes lose, and had to fight harder. But Vincent’s own life story is also something.

Vincent taught himself to swim when he was six – in the early 1950s - at our first public pool - the old Mount Emily swimming pool. When he went to Beatty Secondary School, he became the swimming team captain. Later, he received a long-distance swimming award – he swam more than 20km, non-stop over 12 hours. Vincent was also a serious judoka, obtaining a black belt (second dan). Unfortunately he got seriously injured in a road accident, which gave him a permanent limp. So he decided to become a swimming coach. He read up, taught himself the training techniques, and began coaching at the old Royal Naval Officers’ Club in Woodlands in 1964. Later he moved to Farrer Park Swimming Pool and then Tanah Merah Country Club.

Vincent Poon is still coaching at 70. He told The Sunday Times that his heart was beating faster and faster while waiting for Joseph’s finals on TV yesterday.

His story carries the Singapore spirit. Find something that we can each be good at. Persevere over the years. Then pass the passion on to the next generation.

So from parent to teacher to student, we keep discovering talents in Singapore, give everyone hope, and support them on their own journey of excellence, each in their own way. Who knows, we may even create more Joseph Schoolings.

The photos: Joseph Isaac Schooling in 2004, when he was 9, taken by Willy Foo.

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Top photos via Willy Foo

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