There isn't much need for us to introduce the man on whom more than 5 million people rest their hopes upon, so let's get straight to three facts working in his favour:

1. Joseph Schooling is the most on-form 100m butterfly swimmer this year.

Up till the thrilling events of this morning, the 21-year-old was among the world's most on-form swimmers, laying claim to clocking the second-fastest time for the 100m butterfly event in the world (50.96 seconds), after Hungarian speedster Laszlo Cseh's 50.86 seconds.

Post his stupendous semi-final swim...

WATCH: @joschooling swims 50.83s to qualify first overall for #Rio2016 100m butterfly final https://t.co/0b0suVpy30 https://t.co/OwrueDNUA5

— Channel NewsAsia (@ChannelNewsAsia) August 12, 2016

... Schooling pipped Cseh's record to clock the fastest 100m fly swim this year.

2. Schooling has the psychological advantage of beating almost all his competitors, including swim legend Michael Phelps. 

In his semifinal race on Friday (Singapore time), Schooling already beat five of the seven swimmers he will meet on Saturday morning (Singapore time). 

On Friday night, in the heats, Schooling also beat perhaps the one person who really matters — Phelps.

And this is not the first time this year Schooling has bested his 31-year-old idol. His first-ever win against the American was in June this year at a swim meet in Austin, Texas. 

The only swimmer Schooling has not directly beaten in a race this Olympics is Cseh, who if you recall now has the second-best 100 fly timing this year. 

3. Phelps does have the all-time best 100 fly timing — but this was a while back. 

Phelps is currently the world record holder for the 100m butterfly event, clocking in a crazy 49.82 seconds in Aug 2009.

However, he has not managed these sub-50-second timings over the past few years:

His best timing in 2016: 51.00 seconds

His best timing in 2014: 51.17 seconds

In fact, Phelps has yet to clock a below-51-second timing in the 100 fly event in Rio, both during the heats (51.60 seconds) and the semi-finals (51.58 seconds). 

Sounds convincing, right? But before you sail away thinking Schooling's got victory in the bag, here's some food for thought tonight, courtesy of Tan Thiam Peng, a sports journalist who previously covered five Olympic events (two main Olympics and three Youth Olympics):

Let's prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and cheer Schooling on at 9.12am on Saturday. 

Top photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images.

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