The Mongolian siblings Enkhtamir Batbayar and Enkhkhuslen Batbayar are currently all-time Mongolian national record holders in a combined 15 long course and 11 short course events. It’s a remarkable feat for the youngsters, made even more impressive by the fact that both have trained at home in Mongolia for the majority of their lives.

The youngest of the pair, eighteen-year-old Enkhtamir, is still really just getting started in the sport. Currently training in the largest pool in the country, a five-lane 25m facility in the capital of Ulaanbaatar, Enkhatmir told World Aquatics that it has been a challenge to find training time and venues in a country where swimming does not have a high profile.

“My country actually doesn't have a big focus on sports, there’s not a lot of attention, but I'm still doing it,” said Enkhtamir.

“In Mongolia, there is just one main pool which is 25m and five lanes and I train in that five to six times a week. There is not even one 50m pool and no swimming schools.”

Despite these challenges Enkhtamir continues to set a new benchmark in male Mongolian swimming, breaking the 100m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle & 200m Individual Medley long course national records earlier this year to go with the 50m Freestyle, 100m Freestyle, 200m Breaststroke and 100m Butterfly short course national records he broke late last year.

Image Source: Morgan Hancock/World Aquatics

Enkhtamir explains his love for the sport came through his father Batbayar Batbayar and his older sister Enkhkhuslen.

“When I was a child my sister was swimming, I don't know how she got involved, but it is a family thing as my father used to swim in college,” said Enkhtamir.

“I think it's a family tradition.”

For the past few months, Enkhtamir has joined his twenty-one-year-old sister at the World Aquatics Training Centre in Thailand. Enkhkhuslen is a World Aquatics scholarship holder - a path that Enkhtamir soon wishes to follow.

“The Thanyapura Training Centre is really nice and the pool is great,” said Enkhtamir.

“The environment, the coach, and the manager are so nice, that makes it way easier to practice.”

“There I have 20-25 teammates and they are very international from all the different countries. There I can practice against the standard of swimmers I race against, so I can get better day by day.”

Image Source: Enkhkhuslen in action in Fukuoka (Hiroyuki Nakamura/World Aquatics)

His sister Enkhkhuslen is proof of this having set a remarkable string of eight national short course records in a two-month racing block at the end of 2022.

Enkhkhuslen broke the Mongolian national record in the 50m Freestyle, 100m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle, 400m Freestyle, 800m Freestyle, 50m Breaststroke, 100m Breaststroke and 200m Individual Medley.

At the turn of this year the records continued to tumble. Enkhkhuslen broke the Mongolian national long course records in the 50m Freestyle, 100m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle, 400m Freestyle, 800m Freestyle, 100m Breaststroke, 100m Butterfly and 200m Individual Medley. These records added to her list of existing national long course records held in the 50m Backstroke, 100m Backstroke, 50m Butterfly and 200m Butterfly.

Enkhkhuslen credits a lot of her recent success to the World Aquatics training program in Thailand.

“My teammates from Phuket are my family and they support me and everyone on the team,” Enkhkhuslen told World Aquatics.

“Our competition times are so close and we push each other in training so we are all improving." 

For Enkhkhuslen, national records and qualifying for major meets are one part of the journey, but she has her sights set on bigger goals in the future.

"I really want to achieve the ‘B’ standard in the 200m Freestyle at the Paris Olympics,” said Enkhkhuslen.

“Sometimes I think about qualifying for the semifinals at these important events."