Steven Insixiengmay

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Mastering martial arts is more than about learning to fight.  You learn balance, mental focus and build core strength.  All things that will help you excel in other sports and in life.  No one knows that better than Steven Insixiengmay.  Mastering Taekwondo has helped Steven develop into an elite athlete in an otherwise unrelated sport, swimming.

 

Steven was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As a child he was afraid of the water so his mother, Phet, signed him up for swim lessons.  The instructor noticed something special about Steven and encouraged him to join the swim team.  At first, Steven didn’t like it, but at the age of ten he qualified for his first North Carolina Age Group Championships and after that he was hooked.

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Balancing his time between Taekwondo and Swimming, Steven gradually improved.  He was selected to attend USA Swimming National Diversity camp in 2019 and where he had the opportunity to train at the United States Olympic training center in Colorado Springs.  In 2021 he was one of 46 up-and-coming swimmers selected to join USA Swimming’s National Select Camp at the Elite Athletic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA.

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Steven attends Forsyth Country Day School and is graduating in the Spring of 2022. After evaluating several colleges and visiting the University of Arizona, Steven decided to verbally commit to the University of Georgia.  The Bulldogs are one of the top college teams in the nation and are known for producing Olympians including Jay Litherland, Nick Fink and Gunnar Bentz.  In addition to joining one of the top collegiate swim programs, Steven would uncover a surprise on the Bulldogs roster. “When he was there visiting this kid came up to him and said sa-bai-dee,” said Steven’s mother Phet. Georgia Bulldog, TJ Pettinger, whose mother is Lao, recognized the last name from his own family tree. As the two investigated things they discovered that they were actually cousins. 

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Steven joined the Lao National Team in 2023 and participated in the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia setting national records in the 50, 100 and 200 Meter breast strike events and was a member of the record settign mixed medley relay.   He is one of five known Lao-American NCAA Division I swimmers along with Astrid Dikzwager,  TJ Pettinger, Ariana Dirkzwager and Angelina Messina. Steven represented Laos at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. His mother Phet, and father, Dalevong, were both born in Vientiane, Laos.