{"id":381337,"date":"2022-12-09T06:04:21","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T20:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=381337"},"modified":"2022-12-09T06:04:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T20:04:21","slug":"isaiah-from-naughty-to-national-swimmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/isaiah-from-naughty-to-national-swimmer\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah: From \u2018naughty\u2019 to national swimmer"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
At only 16 years old, Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan coach Hiroyuki Kimura says Isaiah Aleksenko is the highest level athlete in CNMI sports history. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At 3 years old Isaiah Aleksenko wasn\u2019t allowed to join a swim team because of his apparent naughtiness.<\/p>\n

Thirteen years later, the Marianas High School junior is now part of the CNMI national swimming team bound for the 2022 FINA World Championships in Melbourne, Australia.<\/p>\n

Aleksenko, who won two gold medals and a bronze en route to taking home the MVP award in the 2018 Tokyo Junior Sprint in Japan, said he loved the water from the onset.\u00a0
\n

<\/a>
Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan coach Hiroyuki Kimura, left, instructs a 7-year-old Isaiah Aleksenko. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

\u201cEver since I was little I loved swimming. I would ask to go to the beach every time we had the chance and go swim there. My mom saw that I loved swimming and so she made me join a swimming team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yulia Aleksenko\u2019s first attempt at enrolling little Isaiah didn\u2019t turn out well though, as the tot allegedly was too unruly for the swimming coach\u2019s
\npatience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thankfully a year later, Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan took him in.
\n

<\/a>
Eight-year-old Isaiah Aleksenko with Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan coach Hiroyuki Kimura pose after the former won a medal in a Guam meet. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

\u201cActually, he was kicked out of another club and came to my club when he was 4 years old. The reason was that he was too unruly and was hard to handle. Even after coming to our club, it was very difficult to handle him, but I and Yuko (Tsunami Saipan manager) could see through him and found him to be a very sweet and honest child,\u201d said Tsunami Saipan coach Hiroyuki Kimura.<\/p>\n

Now, Aleksenko is every coach\u2019s dream swimmer and Kimura couldn\u2019t stop praising his protege\u2019s abilities in the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that Isaiah is the highest level athlete in CNMI sports history. We\u2019ve been raising him since he was 4 years old, and we\u2019ve also raised him carefully and lovingly with goals for each age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Truth be told, Kimura said Aleksenko could\u2019ve made his national team debut three years ago\u2014he\u2019s just that fantastic a swimmer. But Tsunami Saipan held him back so that his mental state could catch up with his physical attributes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the age of 13, he was already at the level of the CNMI national team, but in consideration for his mental growth, we had kept him until this time. Now that he is 16 years old, our Isaiah is ready to swim in the World Championships. We\u2019ve never seen such high potential in a swimmer like Isaiah. He has grown steadily and achieved results at each age group, and has reached great potential today,\u201d said Kimura.<\/p>\n

He thanked Aleksenko\u2019s mother Yulia for raising him well and becoming the talented swimmer he is today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy pride is beyond description. However, I sincerely thank his mom for letting him continue swimming so far and I really want to say congratulations! Without the understanding and cooperation of Yulia and their trust in me, Isaiah would not be what he is today.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part, Aleksenko thanked Kimura for his mentorship and his mother for nurturing his extraordinary swimming talent.<\/p>\n

The 16-year-old knows that he\u2019s yet to reach his full potential as a swimmer though.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy strengths would probably my mindset when it comes to a race and my weaknesses would be not being able to keep my emotions straight when not getting a good time or getting a disqualification because if I get a worse time or get disqualified it just means I didn\u2019t practice enough or didn\u2019t do good in the race itself,\u201d he said in acknowledging the chink in his armor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aleksenko\u2019s mother said she couldn\u2019t be more proud of how her once unruly son has blossomed to become the future of CNMI swimming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud of my son Isaiah and the Team NMI swimmers for representing us in the World Championships. They have worked so hard in spite of everything. Thank you coach Hiro for getting them this far and helping to make our dreams come true.\u00a0 I wish you all the best of luck. Have fun and safe travels!\u201d<\/p>\n

On getting kicked out of his first swimming team, Isaiah\u2019s mother gave some clarity on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was not really kicked out. Usually kids start at the age of 5\u2026 It was difficult to teach him because he didn\u2019t listen and was active and too young. [The coach] I believe she nicely explained that it\u2019s not yet time to start training, and she advised me to bring him back at 5 years old\u2026but yes he was very active and also naughty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yulia, however, credits Kimura for Isaiah\u2019s development and potential not only as a swimmer but as a person.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true coach Hiro was very careful, kind, and patient with Isaiah. He knew Isaiah was raised without a dad and Isaiah from the beginning treated him like his own father,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Isaiah Aleksenko and Kimura, along with Jinnosuke Suzuki, Maria Batallones, and Shoko Litulumar, leave for the Land Down Under this morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At 3 years old Isaiah Aleksenko wasn\u2019t allowed to join a swim team because of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":381320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-381337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}