Three weeks ago, we reported that Singapore’s Joseph Schooling, who had qualified for four events for Rio with FINA “A” cuts in the 100 and 200 meter butterflies as well as the 100 and 200 meter freestyles but had only entered the first three, was leaning toward dropping the 200 fly in favor of the 100 free.
On Tuesday, Singapore Swimming made it official, announced from its Twitter account that Schooling will drop the 200 fly in Rio to focus on the 100 fly and 100 free.
“sg_swimming#RIO2016 Update: Joseph Schooling will swim in the 100m Freestyle and Butterfly. “After a lot of thinking by Joseph and discussions between Eddie Reese and I, we have come to the decision to drop the Men’s 200m Butterfly event. Joseph will be swimming the 100m Freestyle event instead where we believe he has a very good chance to be in the final,” said head coach Sergio Lopez.
Joseph will swim in the 100m Freestyle on 10 Aug,12.02 am (SG Time) and 100m Butterfly on 12 Aug, 1.16am (SG Time).#SwimWithUs”
Schooling, a rising junior at University of Texas, is the reigning NCAA champion in the 200 yard butterfly, and holds the U.S. Open record in SCY in that event, too. He first won the SCY event at NCAAs as a freshman with 1:39.62, missing the U.S. Open and NCAA records by .31. This past year, when he was a sophomore, he destroyed both marks, notching a 1:37.97 to rewrite history by 1.34 seconds.
Schooling is entered in the 2016 Olympic Games with a seed time of 1:55.73, which he achieved in the summer of 2015 at the Southeast Asian Games. The swim lowered his own Singapore national record, which had been set at 1:56.27 since the 2013 World Championships. At 2015 World Championships in Kazan last summer, Schooling swam 1:56.85 in heats to qualify 13th for semi-finals, then 1:56.11 to finish tenth overall; he did not advance to the final, as Tom Shields was the last one in with 1:55.75.
The fastest Schooling has been in the 200 during the 2015-16 season was 1:57.37 from the Atlantic Classic in April.
I would like to have seen Schooling in the 2FLY but respect the decision taking the competition and juxtaposition of his other events. Schooling finishes a race of any length incredibly well – like he has another gear to jump down to. I have a feeling we are going to see that 2FLY for some time to come!
I would have like to see him swim the 2Fly as well. But I would absolutely and totally defer that decision to Sergio and Eddie. They are the greatest. I do not swim there but I would love to see Sergio at UT.
Haha. I believe that Notsofastswimmer is still the same troll as Smoothswimmer. I bet he’s the same guy who has just changed his name. 😆
I don’t understand why you are allowed to call other Troll, and get away with it.
🙁
Just so you know, I’m not smoothswimmer.
I think you owe me an apology.
I think the old men will school him a bit !
I see what you did there! 😀
Weird descision
Good call. Schooling knows he is not going to medal in the 200 fly or 100 free. He is setting things up for his best shot at the 100 fly. Swimming the 100 free gives him 4 straight days of racing (with no pressure in the 100 free). Meanwhile the GOAT, Le Clos and Cseh will be battling each other in the 200 fly before the 100 fly, plus the GOAT has the 200 IM and Le Clos has the 200 free before the 100 fly.
Great call, why would he want to get beat by phelps Chad and cseh on the 200 before the 100?
100free stimulates the same energy system and my guess is that is part of his taper for 100fly, will act as his quality work and no better training than racing.
If he goes 48.0-3 the 100fly could be real special.
Sticking to my prediction Schooking wins 100fly. 50.3.
I don’t see it. I think Schooling has a better shot to medal in the 2Fly than the 1Free.
You also haven’t been watching him practice every day for 7+ years combined. Swimmers do more than just meets. We know nothing. Still, nobody will be surprised with him going a 47. 48.5 during all those races at SEA last year. Also 4×1 at NCAAs is last after a crazy schedule, and I have suspicion that Schooling is a bit more fragile than someone like Conger as far as big schedules go. Obviously Schooling is a Champion though, don’t count him out for a medal.
How can he win Olympics medal when he is only college swimmer and swim in bathtub?
Oh idk maybe the fact that he’s been 50.96 in the 100 lcm fly, just like idk josh prenot is the top seed and won NCAA titles or idk the fact Ryan Murphy has won every backstroke race at NCAAs since he’s been in college and yet is a top 3 seed at the olympics. Just saying
It was meant as sarcasm and possibly to make fun of Bobo Gigi who is not a fan of SCY
Boy, it’s great when you post the same thing in every article.