Opinion | Uniting Singapore: Joseph Schooling’s gold medal effort is breaking down barriers in the city state
The 21-year-old’s victory in the 100 metres butterfly has fostered unity, with people even calling for a review of strict national service laws
Singapore’s multiracial society can at times be overly complicated. Joseph Isaac Schooling has helped to simplify it with one incredible swim.
The 21-year-old old claimed the island nation’s first-ever Olympic gold medal by not only winning the men’s 100 metres butterfly in Rio but also by beating one of the greatest Olympians of all time, American Michael Phelps, and setting an Olympic record of 50.39 seconds.
WATCH: Schooling wins Singapore's first-ever Olympic gold medal
Schooling, who grew up idolising Phelps, is classed as a Eurasian in Singapore – among the smallest ethnic groups in a population of around six million in which Chinese make up the majority followed by indigenous Malays and Indians.
Race is a sensitive issue in Singapore and in everyday life the topic is mostly relegated to that of one that should not be discussed, except at times when it fosters national unity. And Schooling’s Olympian effort is the epitome of those times.