Beating Superman: University Of Texas At Austin Swimmer Defeats Phelps In Rio

AUSTIN, TX — A University of Texas at Austin student has beaten Superman. Joseph Schooling, a junior at UT Austin competing at the Rio Olympics, beat five-time Olympian Michael Phelps in the 100-meter butterfly. Phelps tied for second place behind Schooling, who swam representing Singapore.

For Singapore, Schooling's medal was the first-ever gold medal — in any sport. For Schooling, the victory earned him the bragging rights to say he defeated the Superman of the sport.

Phelps is no slouch in the swimming pool. Friday's silver raised to 27 his number of Olympic medals overall, bringing a breathtakingly impressive tally: 22 gold, three silver and two bronze. Hardware he's got — in spades.

But on Friday the younger Schooling essentially schooled the aging Phelps (the term "aging" being relative, since Phelps' 31 years is still young by any other metric).

"I'm just ecstatic," Schooling told reporters after his victory. "I don't think it has set in yet. It's just crazy."

As it happens, Phelps is Schooling's idol. According to media reports, Schooling met the swimming champion in 2008 at the age of 13. At the time, Schooling already was one of Singapore's finest swimmers. The two met when Phelps was attending a U.S. training camp in Singapore ahead of the Beijing Olympics, and young Schooling made sure a photo was taken of him meeting his idol — a photo that has been circulating like wildfire on social media since his victory.

Schooling is not the only University of Texas student competing at the Olympics. In fact, Rio de Janeiro is teeming with Longhorns — 25 athletes from the school representing seven countries. On Friday, university officials tweeted out a schedule of events in which UT students would compete that day:

At this moment, @UTAustin would rank 5th among ALL countries in GOLD medals won with 6: USA-20, China-13, Great Britain-7, Japan-7, TEXAS-6
— John Bianco (@UT_Bianco) August" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/UT_Bianco/... 13, 2016

Three other UT-Austin athletes had already secured gold before Schooling's epic take-down. Sophomore Townley Haas and seniors Jack Conger and Clark Smith helped the U.S. achieve the gold medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay Tuesday evening at the 2016 Olympic Games.

Haas joined Conor Dwyer, Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps in winning gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay final at 7:00.66. Great Britain won the silver while Japan took home the bronze.

Beyond Austin, Texas has figured prominently in the first week of the Olympics. Indeed, from a state that likes to boast of its bigness, Texas athletes have made a truly big impression in Brazil.

Friday night, UT-Austin alumnus Michelle Carter won the gold medal in shot put — 32 years after her dad, Michael Carter, took the silver in the same event during the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. In securing the gold, the younger Carter beat her own personal best on her sixth and final throw, an astounding 67 feet, 8-1/2 inches.

Family milestones were achieved by virtue of Rio too: The Carters became the first daughter-father combo from Team USA to win Olympic games medals. And Carter became the second American woman to win a medal in the shot put, following Earlene Brown who secured a bronze medal way back in 1960.

The emotion she was unable to contain as the national anthem was being played after getting her gold medal yielded one of the most moving moments thus far at a gathering where the drama of human achievement already abounds.

“I definitely think it raises some awareness and will get them inspired,” Manuel, 20, told the New York Times, referring to the significance of her accomplishment as an African-American woman. “I mean, the gold medal wasn’t just for me. It was for people that came before me and inspired me to stay in the sport. For people who believe that they can’t do it, I hope I’m an inspiration to others to get out there and try swimming. You might be pretty good at it.”

Katie Meili of Carrolton, another Dallas suburb, took the bronze medal in the 100-meter breast stroke.

On Thursday night, the 19-year-old astounded the crowd with a nearly flawless floor performance, displaying her gravity-defying feats on her way to earning a near-perfect score of 15.933. Her final score was 62.198, a huge gymnastics margin of 2.1 points over the silver medalist, her teammate Aly Raisman.

If Phelps is the Superman at this year's Olympics (notwithstanding his loss to Schooling), then Biles is, indisputably, its Superwoman. Much is being said of another distinction she's achieved in these Olympics: In addition to achieving the biggest margin of victory ever in women's gymnastics, it's larger than the margins of victory from 1980 to 2012 combined.

Now that is big, like Texas. And with nine more days to go for Olympic competition, the contingent from Texas is just getting warmed up.