• Colin Schooling, the father of Olympian swimmer Joseph, has died at the age of 73 from cancer
• His family described him as a "giant among men"
• The Singapore Swimming Association said the father was a strong supporter of Singapore’s swimming ecosystem
• He was also instrumental to his son's success, it said

SINGAPORE — Colin Schooling, the father of 26-year-old Olympian swimmer Joseph Schooling, died on Thursday (Nov 18) at the age of 73 after battling cancer.

A spokesperson for the Schooling family said that he died at the Singapore General Hospital with his family by his side.

“Colin was a giant among men. He would always tell you what he thought, no holds barred. We will miss him tremendously,” the spokesperson said.

“The Schooling family would like to thank everyone for their support and words of comfort during this tough time.

“We respectfully appreciate the privacy given to the family during this period.”

Describing her husband as a “tough fighter” in a Facebook post on Thursday, Colin’s wife, May, said that he was a “loving father, a supportive brother, an outgoing uncle, a loyal friend, my husband”.

The 66-year-old said that he was a “character on (his) own”.

“All who personally know him will know what I'm talking about. He speaks freely and passionately, and that is one of the things that I will miss about him,” she said.

“He will be missed but let's celebrate his freedom from pain and suffering and his reunion with The One above.”

Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, said in her own Facebook post that she had met Colin several times over the years when she was Minister for Culture, Community and Youth.

“He was always gracious, considerate and well-mannered. And his love for his family was always felt steeply. We will surely miss him. My thoughts go to Joseph, May and their family,” she said.

Colin’s diagnosis with cancer had been made public on the family’s Instagram account in June this year, about a month before Joseph was due to compete in the Tokyo Olympics.

Like his son, Colin, a fourth-generation Singaporean, was also a keen sportsman in his youth — a tradition that has run in the family.

Colin’s uncle Lloyd Valberg was a high jumper who became Singapore’s first representative to the Olympic Games at the 1948 London edition.

Aside from being known as a former businessman and a Raffles Institution alumnus, Colin was a hurdler and water-polo player who also represented Singapore in softball.

In 1983, he married his wife May, and when Joseph was born in 1995, the couple devoted their time to raising their child.

In 2009, the Schoolings decided to allow their only son to relocate to Florida in the United States to train and study at the Bolles School, with both parents taking turns to spend six months at a time in Jacksonville to take care of him.

The couple also had to take out bank loans and sell their property in Australia to fund Joseph’s training expenses.

A year after Joseph’s 2016 Olympic gold medal win in Rio de Janeiro, Colin and May launched the Schooling Sports Academy, with the aim of raising the level of sports in Singapore.

Offering its condolences in a Facebook post on Thursday, the Singapore Swimming Association said that Colin had been a “strong supporter” of the association and the swimming ecosystem in Singapore.

“(He) was instrumental in Joseph’s rise to becoming Singapore’s first and currently only Olympic gold medallist.”

May wrote in her post to her husband: “It is hard to say goodbye, so let's begin with ‘see you again’.”