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Olympic fever strikes underdog nations winning gold

RIO DE JANEIRO — If you happen to find yourself in Singapore over the next few days, don't be surprised if things get a little confusing.

Members of the Singapore team cheer on Joseph Schooling of Singapore during the men's 100 butterfly final during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on Aug. 12. (Photo: Ryan Pierse, Getty Images)

RIO DE JANEIRO — If you happen to find yourself in Singapore over the next few days, don’t be surprised if things get a little confusing.

For a start, cabs across the small Southeast Asian country appear to have a reference to education on the top, instead of the lit-up word: ‘TAXI’. Chicken nuggets at McDonald’s are free. Shops and restaurants everywhere are offering discounts of just above half-off, 50.39% to be exact.

Everyone is talking about ... Schooling.

That would be Joseph Schooling, the 100-meter butterfly champion who beat Michael Phelps into a tie for second on Friday night and who now, at 21, is discovering the kind of adulation that goes with being a gold medalist for a small country that rarely experiences this kind of global success.

“I hope this shows that if you have a dream and you work hard for it you can get there, even if you come from one of the smallest countries in the world,” Schooling said.

Singapore is indeed tiny, with a population of 5.5 million squeezed into an area half the size of Los Angeles. Schooling’s victory gave the country its fifth overall medal and first gold in its Olympic history. He touched the wall in a time of 50.39 seconds, hence all those discounts.

“Everything has stopped,” Elliot Chew, a financial accounts manager from Singapore, told USA TODAY Sports. “Everyone has Olympic fever, Schooling fever.”

Same thing in Fiji. The Pacific island won its first ever medal of any color when its electrifying men’s rugby sevens took gold last week. Fiji adores its rugby and this was its finest hour, sparking celebrations that show no sign of dying down.

When the team defeated England to emerge victorious, prime minister Frank Bainimarama immediately declared an instant national holiday. Such was the extent of the outpouring of joy, that he added another one the following day, because the party was still in full flow. He didn’t have much choice – joking that national work productivity had been “nil” since the gold medal game.

National pride is found in many forms and the Olympics is the sports world’s ultimate expression of it. In Kosovo, celebrations that followed Majlinda Kelmendi's gold medal in judo were a strong expression of national identity for a new and troubled country.

“We have survived a war,” Kelmendi said. “There are still kids who don’t know if their parents are alive, don’t have anything to eat or books to go to school. So the fact of becoming Olympic champion is just huge for all of us.”

Kelmendi's photo is now everywhere around Kosovo, with the most popular trend being to post it on the front doors of houses, on lampposts and mailboxes.

The United States drips with gold at these Olympics, so much so that even some American champions get relatively little in the way of recognition.

Be skillful and clutch enough to triumph, but unfortunate enough to win on the same day as a headline-grabbing or history-making exploit in the pool, on the gymnastics podium, or on the track, and you’ll find yourself playing second fiddle in the national attention stakes.

Not so for the subjects of the Olympics’ most uplifting stories, athletes whose achievements have given their country a reason to smile…and to party.

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