Singapore congratulates Joseph Schooling on his historic Olympic win

Schooling wins. Singapore celebrates.

Joshua Lee | August 13, 2016, 11:50 AM

In case you've been sleeping in on this Saturday morning and missed the news, Joseph Schooling became the first Singaporean to take home a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics!

Singaporeans from across the island were quick to offer their congratulations:

From Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who thanked Schooling and the rest of Team Singapore for their efforts.

My heartiest congratulations to Joseph Isaac Schooling for his historic gold medal win, and Olympic record of 50.39 seconds for the 100m butterfly! This is Singapore’s first Olympic gold medal ever, and also our first medal for ‪#‎Rio2016‬.

It is an incredible feat to compete among the world’s best, stay focussed, and emerge victorious. Congrats once again to Joseph, you made us very proud today.

To all of Team Singapore - thank you for showing us what it means to work hard and never give up on our dreams. - LHL

‪#‎OneTeamSG‬

Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam also penned a moving piece, which thanked Schooling's parents and Schooling's first coach as well.

He raised us up. Majulah Singapura was just played for the first time in Olympic history.

Joseph Isaac Schooling won the 100m butterly finals, beating the legendary Michael Phelps and world champion Chad Le Clos. And Joseph broke the Olympic record with a time of 50.39 sec.

Joseph has unusual athletic ability, physical and mental. But he also put huge effort over the years to achieve this. So did his parents, Colin and May Schooling, who have been totally dedicated to supporting his ambition. And congratulations to his coaches over the years, in Singapore and the US. Starting with Vincent Poon, who coached Joseph for 5 years when he was young.

Vincent is still going strong as a coach at age 70. He used to dive underwater to watch the young Joseph and help him improve his technique. So when Joseph's current coach Eddie Reese - the former coach of the US Men's Olympic Swimming Team - described Joseph as "the closest human to a dolphin under water", Vincent knew how it all began.

(Photo credit: Kevin Lim, The Straits Times)

Minister for National Development, Lawrence Wong congratulated Schooling for putting our little red dot on the world stage.

Parliamentary Secretary Baey Yam Keng posted this clip of the Singapore Swimming Association going wild for Schooling.

Yeap, Schooling, your Magikarp to Gyrados story inspires us to work harder as Pokemon trainers.

Even our airport joined in the fun.

Schooling's schoolmates (hur hur) went crazy cheering for him as he clinch his historic win.

Ice Queen Rui En broke character to offer her support as well.

While the Health Promotion Board reminds all of us to please go out and swim more.

Screen Shot 2016-08-13 at 10.45.50

PAP MP Lim Biow Chuan calls for a public holiday.

To Schooling, thank you for giving us the best SG51 present ever!

And to MP Lim, thank you in advance for advocating an even bigger SG51 present for all of us.

 

Related articles:

Joseph Schooling sets Olympic record, clinches Singapore’s first Olympic gold medal ever

Watching Joseph Schooling sing Majulah Singapura is even more awesome than winning an Olympic Gold medal

40 thoughts S'poreans must have had while watching the historic swim by Joseph Schooling live

Top photo via Getty Images.

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