Southeast Asian swimmer defeats Phelps, sets Olympic record

Singapore's Joseph Schooling won the 100-meter butterfly 0.75 seconds faster than legend Michael Phelps, winning a gold medal and setting a new Olympic record.

Joseph Schooling brought Singapore its first gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Michael Phelps is the top candidate for the gold medal in the 100m butterfly event. The American swimmer holds both the Olympic (50.58 seconds) and world (49.42 seconds) records in this event.

However, in the final swimming series of the Rio 2016 Olympics this morning, August 12 (Hanoi time), Joseph Schooling caused a surprise when he defeated the American legend. The Singaporean swimmer continuously led, finishing after 50 seconds 39 to win the gold medal and set a new Olympic record. The Singaporean athlete became the first Southeast Asian to win a gold medal in the swimming event of the Olympics.

"Someone (his name is J)oseph Schooling) finally defeatedMichael Phelps," the New York Times headlined.

Michael Phelps finished second with a time of 51.14 seconds. This was the first time the legendary American swimmer failed in the final swimming series at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Before that, he won all four events he registered to compete in.

Joseph Schooling beat his idol to win his first Olympic gold medal.

"I don't care about the record. The important thing here is the gold medal. If I break the world record and only win a silver or bronze medal, it's still a failure. The important thing is that I won the gold medal today," Schoooling shared right after stepping out of the pool.

Sharing about his students' victory, Coach Lopez said: "Schoooling had a great performance. The important thing here is not time. You can swim for 52 seconds but touch the pool wall first to get the gold medal."

According to VNE