Tsirang Damphu Swimming Pool

I thought I was ridiculous when Tsirang made news about opening a swimming pool in Damphu to attract tourists. What? Who would want to go all the way to Tsirang for swimming? Which tourists are they talking about?

It only made sense to me when I visited the town myself. My daughter had only one thing on her mind when she reached Tsirang; to visit the swimming pool. October in Tsirang is still warm enough for swimming in cold water- can now count the months the pool is going to serve people. 

There were dozens of local children in the pool, thoroughly excited. Many of them can swim so well, unlike me and my daughter, who never had so much opportunity to learn the art. As a landlocked country with limited access to water bodies, swimming is an art that only a few Bhutanese have mastered.

Therefore, it was big news when Sangay Tenzin made it to Olympics in swimming from Bhutan where the only public pool in Thimphu is not even operational for the last two years. Looking back, we could applaud the school pool in Ugyen Academy for nurturing the swimming dream that ultimately took him to Japan 2020.

Some day, we may hear of a swimmer who began in Damphu pool go on to win an Olympic medal for our country or bravely jump in the river to save someone from drowning. It's not just a perfect getaway for the locals in this warm Dzongkhag, it's a national asset.

As of now, It's one of the only two public pools in the country and the only one that is operational. I happily added it on Google Maps.

An Olympic Swimmer From a Country With One Swimming Pool

It didn't occur to me how significant it was for a swimmer from Bhutan to go to Olympic 2020 until I received an email from a Dutch journalist, Fabian van der Poll. He worked with a Dutch daily newspaper, NRC. He had found my contact through an article I wrote in 2013 about swimming pools in Bhutan.

While researching on a debut swimmer, Sangay Tenzin from Bhutan, Fabian stumbled upon my blog post that read Bhutan had only one swimming pool in the whole of the country until recently. It intrigued him to do a story on the 17-year-old. It's a goldmine sort of discovery for a journalist to learn that a boy who learned to swim in the river has made it to the Olympics.

Sangay Tenzin, 17 (PC: Bhutan Today Page)

We either took it for granted or were ignorant but Sangay Tenzin's journey to Tokyo deserved more attention. From the river in Gelephu to a school swimming pool in Ugyen Academy, Sangay's destiny kept swimming despite all the limitations. It's through the various news sources that we learned how he had to train in Bangkok for the last two years because we don't have the kind of pool for him to train in Bhutan. 

Sangay is 17 and has at least two more Olympics to look forward to. He will swim far in life. But more than his own career, he has paved way for generations of youths to follow him, much like Chencho Gyeltshen did with football. 

Because of him, Olympic size swimming pools will be built in Bhutan. He has drawn the attention of the people in the most magnificent way. He didn't demand anything, he just worked his way to the Olympics 2020. He caused the splash to talk for him. He created the future he wanted.