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."

And he's a Longhorn! #HookEm @TexasMSD #BevoInRiohttps://t.co/bgxcpbVdqP

— UT Austin (@UTAustin) August 13, 2016 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.

Joseph Schooling met Michael Phelps in Singapore in 2008. He just beat him in the 100 meter butterfly pic.twitter.com/DsINHyJBXO

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) August 13, 2016 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:



If you're watching #Olympics today, be sure to follow these Longhorns: https://t.co/4shCZymlLE #BevoInRio #HookEm pic.twitter.com/WYO7JVcQpQ

— UT Austin (@UTAustin) August 12, 2016 Here's a fun fact: Athletes from Texas account for roughly one-third of the entire medal haul after the first week of the Olympics. Stated another way (as one university spokesman actually stated it), in reference to the UT athletes' haul, were UT-Austin a nation unto itself, it would rank fifth in gold medal acquisitions.



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.

