In the Museum of Modern Art in New York rests an uncommon exhibit. It is a grainy photograph of a footprint from July 1969. It belongs to Edwin Aldrin, the second man on the moon. The extraordinary always leave an impression.

Joseph Schooling did not go as far as the moon, but one might say he circumnavigated the earth in water. After all, he’d swum at least 40,000km before he arrived at a destination most athletes never reach. A boy from our suburbs on the highest step of an Olympic podium with Michael Phelps looking up at him.