The plucky swimmers of far-flung nations who train in the sea where stingrays and crocodiles lurk are ready to strike a blow for the sport’s minnows at the Asian Games.
As Olympic champions such as China’s Sun Yang and Japan’s Kosuke Hagino soak up the limelight, simply getting to Jakarta has been a remarkable achievement for the fresh-faced hopefuls from the Maldives and East Timor.
Better known for its sun-kissed blue lagoons, the Maldives is no island paradise for its competitive swimmers, who are regularly stung by jellyfish in the murky waters off Male.
Photo: AFP
“We see jellyfish and stingrays mostly and sometimes eels so I get pretty scared,” 14-year-old Hulva Khulail said.
“I’ve been stung so many times,” added Khulail, who is to take the plunge in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke in Jakarta. “It itches so much you have to stop and pour vinegar on it, and also the sea is very polluted.”
Such is the parlous state of swimming in the Maldives that there is no proper pool available.
Khulail and teammate Haish Hassan instead use the Indian Ocean, sharing a 25m area marked out by floating blocks with fish and other creatures — often at night.
“It’s hard for us to swim in a pool because the water is very dense,” said science buff Hassan, also 14, who is to tackle the backstroke, breaststroke and 400m freestyle.
“The seawater is easier to swim in, but sometimes practice gets canceled because of the water pollution. We’ve all complained about it,” he said.
Another swimmer poised to become one of the unsung heroes of the Games is East Timor’s Imelda Felycita Ximenes Belo, who only learned to swim five years ago.
The 19-year-old trailblazer is to be the first Timorese swimmer to compete at the event, but unlike her role model, US Olympic star Katie Ledecky, she risks life and limb to train in an ocean infested with saltwater crocodiles.
Many beaches in East Timor are unswimmable and communities live in fear of crocodile attacks — but it does not stop Belo.
“There’s crocodiles in the sea and they can be really dangerous,” said freestyler Belo, whose other Asian Games goal is to take a selfie with her crush, Singaporen Joseph Schooling.
“I can’t go out too deep because you can’t see. My parents worry that I might get eaten, but I just pray to God to protect me from the crocs,” she said.
For Nepal’s swimmers, it is not so much sea monsters they fear, but the prospect of turning into couch potatoes — for seven months of the year it is too cold to use the nation’s only 50m pool.
“We can only train for five months and you can also have political strikes too, so you lose more days,” said Sirish Gurung, who is to swim the 50m and 100m freestyle. “In the winter there’s nothing to do — I just eat burgers and fries. It’s a miracle that we’re here.”
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