For the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, swimmer Sangay Tenzin will be representing Bhutan in the men’s 100-metre freestyle category. He has been training for the international tournaments for years in Thailand. Bhutan got a universality place to take part in swimming at Paris 2024. Universality place is given to those countries whose athletes do not qualify for the event.
After completing his studies in 2021, 20-year-old Sangay Tenzin has been training for international tournaments and Olympic Games in Thailand.
He participated in ten international tournaments including Hangzhou Asian Games and Tokyo Olympic Games.
During his training in Thailand, in a week, he swims for 20 hours and goes to the gym for three hours. He has his own precision nutrition eating plan which is a dietary recommendation and nutritional guidelines tailored for a person. He said he spends around 12,000 to 15,000 ngultrum per month on diet.
All his training expenses in Thailand are being paid by the Bhutan Olympic Committee.
“I never imagined I would go to the Olympics and represent my country. And now I have already been to one Olympic Games in Tokyo and I am going to Paris and it will probably be my last Olympic and probably a memorable one. So, it is all because of the help of World Aquatics and the Bhutan Olympic Committee that I got such an opportunity to represent my country on a big stage,” said Sangay Tenzin.
Currently, he is in the country as he came for the opening of the Thimphu Aquatic Centre earlier this month. He hopes that the new aquatic centre will help groom more professional swimmers in the future.
“When we did not have this pool before, I used to train in the hotel pool, which is small and I cannot really swim properly in that pool. But now, we have a bigger pool, an international size pool and it is convenient for me as well to swim. And I believe this pool is at the highest altitude in the world. So, I am pretty sure a lot of professional swimmers will join and come here to Bhutan and swim in this pool for altitude training, and also it will benefit the tourism of Bhutan and promote Bhutan.”
The Summer Olympics will begin from the 26th of July till the 11th of August this year. More than 10,500 athletes will be competing in 329 events.
Karma Wangdi
Edited by Tshering Zam
