RIO DE JANEIRO – Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer of all time, has one tiny blip on his amazing career record.

Already on an all-time Olympic record of 22 gold medals in Rio, the perfect ending to the American’s sports story would have been gold in his final individual event – the men’s 100m butterfly title that he has held since the 2008 Beijing Olympics – and a last one in the men’s 4x100m medley relay on Sunday morning (Singapore time), the final event of the swimming competition at the Olympic Games. 

But national swimmer Joseph Schooling was that tiny blip today, as the 21-year-old nailed a perfect race at the Olympic Aquatic Stadium to steal glory and gold from the American legend, who, incidentally, was the boyhood hero who had inspired Schooling to chase his Olympic dream.

It is not a record that Phelps is happy about, but the 31-year-old graciously applauded his younger colleague for his giant-slaying effort today.

He said at the post-race press conference: “I probably would have been really, really, really upset at losing a race. I’m not happy, nobody likes to lose.

"But I’m proud of Joe and he obviously swam the best race and for me, I’ve been able to know Joe a long time and watch him grow and turn into the swimmer that he is.”

This week in Rio, photos of a young Katie Ledecky – who has won four gold in Rio, and broken an Olympic and world record – and Schooling have captured the media and spectators’ attention, particularly the photo from mum May Schooling’s family album, which showed both Joseph and Phelps together when Phelps was in Singapore in 2008 for an acclimatisation camp ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

Phelps laughed as he recalled riding a golf buggy to hunt down the monkeys at the Singapore Island Country Club. While he would not have imagined that the 13-year-old boy he met in Singapore would beat him in the pool eight years later, he is keen to see what else Schooling can do on the world stage.

The American swim superstar, who owns the 100m butterfly world record of 49.82sec, wants Schooling and the other swimmers to take a crack at his seven-year-old world mark.

“What he is able to achieve is up to him…he’s going to have some pretty good 100m fly results and I’m excited just to see how much faster he goes," he said.

"I think it’ll be pretty cool to see somebody else break 50sec, anybody, any of the guys besides me up here, to see somebody else break 50 again will be pretty exciting.

“Watching Joe swim yards, I watched him swim last summer at the World Championships so it’s up to him where he wants to take it, as big as he wants to dream, as hard as he wants to work to be able to do whatever that’s in his head. That’ll be really fun, and I’m really excited to see where everything goes from here.”

Both men share an easy banter and camaraderie that comes with athletes who know what it means to train hard, race fast, and suffer for their craft.

Post-victory ceremony, Phelps and Schooling walked side by side during their victory parade, sharing a private chat poolside as they waved to fans and posed for photographers.

At the press conference, Phelps even joked to the press about their focus on him. He said with a laugh: “Joe should be getting most of the questions, this kid just won a gold medal. Ask him some more questions.”

Hearing the biggest compliment from a man he admired, Schooling appeared to be holding his emotions in check. He said: “Growing up, most swimmers, Chad also, idolised Michael. He’s the greatest, he’s accomplished so much in his career, he’s the perfect guy – to dream of accomplishing what he’s accomplished, it’s crazy.

“One gold medal, I can’t imagine, 22, 23, that’s out of this world. If it wasn’t for Michael, I wouldn’t have gotten to this point. I wanted to be like him as a kid. I wanted to win, and a lot of this, he’s the reason why I wanted to be a better swimmer.”

Schooling may be the world’s fastest in the 100m fly tonight, and Singapore’s wonder boy who won gold at the Olympic Games, but for a moment, the 21-year-old was a star-stuck boy again when asked about his private conversation poolside with Phelps.

He said: “After the race, I asked him…why not do four more years? He said that’s not going to happen.

“I was like, hey this is crazy, I don’t know how to feel right now, it’s out of this world. He just looked at me and smiled and said ‘I know’.

"Just being beside him, walking beside him, I’ll really cherish this for the rest of my life.”