Aasish top 13-year-old in 200m fly

Aasish Dangol shows off the medals he won in a recent meet where he also installed himself as the No. 1 13-year-old swimmer in the 200m butterfly in the U.S.(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Former Tsunami Saipan Swimming Center member Aasish Dangol is now the No. 1-ranked 13-year-old swimmer in the 200m butterfly in the country.

This, after the son of Sanjay and Ren Dangol swam the event in the recent 2022 PC LCM Far Westerns with a time of 2:09.

“I don’t feel much different, I am excited to go up in age, and maybe my goal for next season can be to be the fastest 13-14 year old in the nation. I think it will also be fun to go to bigger and faster meets,” Aasish said.

The younger Dangol said the meet in Concorde, California was actually his second attempt at swimming the fastest 200m butterfly for a 13-year-old. 

“Recently, I went to a four-day meet called sectionals, where I tried to go at 2:10 lcm 200 butterfly time. The time of 2:10 is a time standard for a meet called futures. I just missed it and went a 2:11, which ranked me as the third fastest 13-year-old, but I had another swim meet the very next week. The next week at a meet called Far Westerns, on the third day, I went a 2:09 in my 200m butterfly which got me a futures cut and ranked me as the fastest 13-year-old 200m butterflier in the nation.”

The Albany Armada Aquatics, LLC swimmer dedicated his most recent achievement to his family as well as current and former swimming coaches.

“I don’t have a specific person to dedicate this accomplishment to, but I would like to thank my family who always believed and supported me. Credit also goes to [Tsunami Saipan] coach Hiro [Kimura] who taught me how to swim and built a great foundation in my swimming career and my current coaches here at Albany Armada Aquatics who have  molded me into the swimmer I am,” he said.

Sanjay and Ren Dangol, meanwhile, said they’re always proud of their children for all the hard work, dedication, and sacrifice they put into becoming better in what they do.

“Aasish takes swimming very seriously. He is very dedicated to this sport. He tries to have a 100% practice attendance no matter what. I remember, as soon as he did his 200m butterfly, he got out of the pool and hugged me, and although out of breath, said that he got the futures time standard and now would be ranked as the fastest 13-year-old. I was so happy that his hard work paid off and he made all of us very proud,” said Ren. 

She added that what is great about Aasish’s discipline in swimming is that he always finds a way to motivate himself even during his lows. 

“He makes practice not just because he needs to go to but a way to improve and work on his swimming.”

Dangol started swimming when he was just 4 years old because his older sister, Ashley, was already swimming with Tsunami Saipan.

He went to the Guam Swimming Championships the first time when he was 7 years old and won the championship in the boys 8-and-under division.

Dangol then participated in the Tokyo Junior Sprint the next year for the first time when he was 8 years old and amazingly won the gold medal of the 50m butterfly.

A few months later, the swimming prodigy broke the CNMI age group record in the same event in the Saipan International Meet.

The following year, Dangol was back in the Tokyo Junior Sprint and took home the bronze medal of the 50m butterfly and 100m individual medley. 

Then in 2019 when Dangol was 10 he and his family moved to the U.S. mainland in California.