Singaporean Joseph Schooling aims to make an impact at world swimming championships
He dominated the Southeast Asian Games, winning gold medals in nine events, but will focus on just the butterfly events in Kazan, Russia
As the biggest fish in one of world swimming's smallest ponds, Singapore's Joseph Schooling has set his sights on making a huge splash on the global stage for his tiny nation.
Singapore has never won a swimming medal at the Olympics or world championships but the 20-year-old is the country's best prospect to do so in years.
Schooling won a silver medal in the 100 metres butterfly at last year's Commonwealth Games in Scotland when he finished just behind South Africa's Olympic champion Chad le Clos.
For Joseph, being the best in Southeast Asia is not his goal. He wants to win a medal at the world championships and the Olympics
A few months later he became the first Singaporean man in 32 years to win a swimming gold medal at the Asian Games, beating the best of China and Japan.
Earlier this year, he completely dominated the Southeast Asian Games in his homeland, winning gold medals in each of the nine events he entered.
He was able to dominate despite not having fully tapered for the meet and embarking on a gruelling schedule that he has no intentions of trying to match at the world championships.
"For Joseph to come in, not fully rested and make a statement like that, I take my hat off to him," Singapore's new national head coach Sergio Lopez said.
"But for Joseph, being the best in Southeast Asia is not his goal. He wants to win a medal at the world championships and the Olympics."
Lopez won medals for Spain at the Olympics, world and European championships before switching to coaching.
He coached Schooling in Florida for five years when the Singaporean first moved to the United States to train with the best.
Schooling now studies and trains in Texas while Lopez has a new role as chief of the Singaporean national team, a job he took partly because he was impressed by what he saw in Schooling.
"These kids are looking for leaders and Joseph is definitely one of them."
For the world championships, Schooling is ditching the lung-bursting programme he swam at the SEA Games to focus entirely on butterfly.
Although he qualified in other events he knows his best chance of success is to conserve himself, so he has entered just the 50m, 100m, and 200m butterfly, with the 100m his best medal chance.
"He doesn't need all those other events right now. What he really needs is to have the experience of fighting for a medal, at the highest level," Lopez said.
"That's his goal and while it's going to be very hard, he has the potential and the mindset.
"Of course there are a lot of other people who have that as well so it's just a matter of what's going to happen in the next 12 months, but with a bit of luck he could win a medal."
