Defending Olympic champion for Men's 100m butterfly Joseph Schooling will be competing in his pet event on Thursday (July 29).

The 26-year-old swam in the Men's 100m freestyle heats today, where he ranked sixth in his heat with a timing of 49.84.

He did not qualify for the semi-finals for this event as a result.

A warm-up

The 100m Freestyle event is likely to be Schooling's warm up, similar to Olympics Games Rio 2016.

"I feel warmed up for the 100m fly. I don't train for [the 100m free] so it was nice to be top 16 and nice to race these guys," Schooling said in 2016 after finishing last in the semi-finals for this event, reported Straits Times.

The 100m freestyle enables him to feel the atmosphere and adjust himself for 100m butterfly, he added.

True enough, that year Schooling won the first Olympic gold medal for Singapore in the 100m butterfly with a time of 50.39 seconds, defeating legendary Olympian Michael Phelps.

Men's 100m Butterfly on July 29

This time, Schooling will have a face-off with 24-year-old Caeleb Dressel from the United States and 20-year-old Kristof Milak from Hungary.

In 2019's World Swimming Championship, Dressel broke the world record that was previously held by Phelps with a record of 49.5 seconds.

Milak is the current holder of the world record in 200m butterfly.

However, Schooling said in a recent interview with CNA that he feels less pressure after experiencing a "rollercoaster ride" in the past few years.

He expressed his appreciation towards his parents and shared that he still talks to them every day while being in Tokyo.

Schooling added that he aims to be the best version of himself at Tokyo Olympics.

Top image via Getty Images.