Uniquely Singaporean ways of celebrating Joseph Schooling’s win

SINGAPORE — Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you would have heard that Joseph Schooling beat American swimming legend Michael Phelps in the Men’s 100m butterfly finals on Saturday to clinch Singapore’s first ever Olympic gold medal.

Shortly after his historic win, social media activity surged, with congratulatory messages and an outpouring of national pride flooding the Internet. Here are some of the more enthusiastic responses we have seen so far.

Changi Airport’s Olympic gold medal announcement

We think Changi Airport should get a gold medal for its creativity for their cool announcements. First, it congratulated Schooling on his win on Facebook on Saturday with a picture of a fictitious Arrivals board showing his flight details (SG2016) and arrival time (50.39). Then, it went one up, by putting a congratulatory message on a real Departures board yesterday morning, saying “Welcome Home Joseph Schooling, First Singapore Olympic Gold Medalist”. When netizens asked why it wasn’t on the arrival board instead, they replied: “We would have loved to do an Arrivals board but there’s no unique Solari Board like this in Arrivals!”

More gold for Jo

The Olympic medal isn’t the only gold Schooling received in Rio. To celebrate his win, the Singapore Airlines presented the 21-year-old with his very own KrisFlyer Elite Gold card and one million KrisFlyer Miles “because the King of the Butterfly deserves a great way to fly”. However, that was not enough for some. A netizen pointed out that his gold medal performance was deserving of the Lifetime Solitaire status and that SIA should give him an “upgrade”.

A rush to buy 4D

Singaporeans know a 4D opportunity when they see one. Within an hour after Schooling’s win, the 4D number 5039 was sold out as punters rushed to Singapore Pools’ outlets to bet on his Olympic record-breaking time of 50.39s. Those who missed out decided to try their luck with 5114 — in reference to the three-way silver-medal tie of 51.14s clocked by Phelps, South Africa’s Chad le Clos and Hungarian Laszlo Cseh. We just don’t give up, do we?

Levelling up in Pokemon Go

Another thing that got the whole nation talking (and walking) the past week — apart from Schooling’s much anticipated performance in the swimming pool — is Pokemon Go. This hilarious meme shows Schooling’s humble beginnings as a “Magikarp”, when he was a mere kid in awe of his swimming hero (remember that much circulated photo with Phelps?). Now, our very own Olympic champion has fully evolved, ready for more battles ahead. And naturally he only deserves to be the fiercest water and flying (butterfly stroke — geddit?) type Pokemon around — the super rare “Gyarados”.

It’s back to school as usual

Bravo to the Ministry of Education (MOE) for showing an unusual cheeky side in its Facebook post on Saturday. Amid calls for a public holiday, the MOE decided to celebrate Schooling’s win by reminding students that there will be school as usual on Monday, because “Schooling is amazing and we all love Schooling”. TOGGLE