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Schooling’s hunger to succeed was evident even at the age of six, when he made a commitment to himself to compete at the Olympics, after hearing stories about his granduncle Lloyd Valberg, a high jumper, who became Singapore’s first ever Olympian at the 1948 Games. This innate determination has proven to be a key factor in his success. He also notes his discipline to follow a schedule and ability to find inner peace and motivation are traits that will also serve him well in business.

“You can take people out of any field and put them anywhere,” he says. “The crazy thing is if you speak to high-performing people, you’re going to hear them talk about different things in their fields, but the mindset is all the same, and that just says it all.”

Had the Tokyo Olympics been held in 2020 as planned, he is the first to admit that he would not have been ready to defend his title. A subpar performance at the 2019 SEA Games, concerns over his weight, and perhaps a wrong decision to return to Singapore for his Olympic preparation meant he would have headed to Tokyo a shadow of his former self.

But the postponement of the Games to July this year bought Schooling one more year to train. Since moving back to the US to train under his former coach, Sergio Lopez, he has found his groove.

“I just think I’ve been too comfortable in Singapore,” he says. “I love being home, but I think I’m just so used to being in the US that whenever I’m stateside, I’m subconsciously already locked into what I need to do.”

In what could be a preview to the Olympic final, Schooling came in second, with a time of 52.93 seconds, in the 100 m fly at the ISCA International Senior Cup in March, sandwiched between fellow Olympic hopefuls Caeleb Dressel (51.69) and Jack Conger (53.05).

While the timing is still a long way from his personal best and Olympic-winning effort of 50.39 seconds, the race against Dressel, the 100 m butterfly world record holder (49.50), was an important step.

“Caeleb’s the guy to be beat right now,” says Schooling. “He’s the man everyone is chasing, so just being in the same heat, you need to be comfortable racing him.”

But to stand a chance of striking gold again, he will need to cut his time down below 50 seconds. Apart from Americans Dressel and Conger, Hungary’s Kristof Milak, who clocked a personal best of 50.47 seconds in March, and 2016 Olympic silver medallist Chad le Clos of South Africa will be Schooling’s biggest rivals for a medal.

In fact, he views the 2021 field as tighter than the 2016 line-up, which featured American swimming legend and Schooling’s childhood idol Michael Phelps. Phelps, Le Clos and Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh all finished an unprecedented joint-second in 51.14 seconds.

“I think it’s going to be a very different race,” says Schooling. “At the top, the discrepancy is going to be a little more than what it was in Rio. Whatever it is, it’s going to be one heck of a ride.”

It is a ride that Singaporeans will follow closely. Thousands lined the streets for Schooling’s victory parade in 2016. And this connection with his fans is what he cherishes most.

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“In the beginning I didn’t really understand what that meant,” says Schooling, whose chance meeting as a 13-year-old with Phelps, his idol, was a pivotal point in his Olympic journey. “I thought, ‘Okay, cool, you see this person so happy for taking a picture, for example, or talking to them for 30 seconds, and you think, ‘What’s the big deal?’ But down the line, the more you see, the more you understand, and once you start understanding the impact of it, that’s when the magic starts.”

“The exciting part for me is if I can recreate the feeling that I felt when I spoke to Michael Phelps for the first time. That’s crazy and that shouldn’t be real. How can you bring that person so much happiness with something so small?”

Whatever path he chooses after Tokyo will have a big impact on his life. Regardless, one thing he hopes will remain is to continue impacting the lives of others.

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