Life In Thailand
Tyler is an American citizen born in Thailand. He spent his early years in Thailand attending St. Stephen's International School (SIS), a British-curriculum based school completing Year 7 (Grade 6 equivalent) before moving here to Las Vegas, NV. Tyler begin swimming at the age of 26 months old with the Bangkok Dolphin Swim Club, where he began competing in 2012, kicking off his 1st competition in the Colgate Kids Triathlon 2012. Since then, Tyler represented his school by participating in various local and inter-mural swimming competitions as well as other team sports - soccer, basketball, and track. He broke the St. Stephen's International Primary school record for all swimming events in 2012 and lead his school to recognition at the 2015 FOBISIA Games, Bangkok, Thailand
Life In Las Vegas, NV
Tyler moved to Las Vegas, Nevada during the summer of 2018. It was an interesting change, however not too drastic, as his skills in sports, playing online games, and vlogging enabled him to bond easily with other children over here. Apart from sports and games, Tyler is very familiar with the American culture as, since the age of 2 years old he would spend every winter and summer vacation over here in the US. During the summers he would attend summer sports camps in Schaumburg, Illinois.
Being accustomed to playing multiple sports throughout the school year, Tyler decided to participate in the Faith Lutheran middle school soccer team as of March 2019, where he played left defense. However, it was the first and the last time that he was able to participate in MS Soccer.
April 2019, while trying to save the ball as it was kicked near-off field, Tyler slipped on the concrete running track that surrounded the soccer field and fractured his scaphoid. Not only was he out of soccer, but his fractured wrist also put him out of the whole season of long course swimming. His cast was removed in July 2019, where sadly, by then, the swimming season had ended. Tyler returned back to swimming in August 2019. However, he returned back more determined than ever.
Realizing his swimming opportunity loss over spring and summer, as soon as his cast was removed early July 2019, Tyler approached me asking how could he get back into shape and form as soon as possible so he could get back into his element better than before and be ready for the upcoming Desert Champ competition that would take place August 2019.
With his physican's consent and blessing, I signed Tyler up for Alpha Training at Lifetime the very next day to train with the same physical trainer who trains the Sandpiper senior group swimmers as well as ex-Olympian Cody Miller. As of August 2019 onwards, Tyler has been dropping time in nearly all his events achieving new Personal Best times with each competition he participates in.
Getting To Know Tyler W.
Hi, my name is Tyler Watchalapong. I started swimming when I was 2.5 years old and have always enjoyed getting into the water. As the years went by, I started to enjoy competitive swimming even more. I enjoy the adrenaline rush before each event – not only do we have to race without any oxygen, swimming is a nerve-racking sport, especially when I win by mere milliseconds or make finals in a race because of 0.01 seconds. For me, competitive swimming is an individual sport – if I lose or win, it is all myself - my own ability, stamina, skill, form, and mentality.
My favorite strokes are either breaststroke or freestyle, where my favorite races are 50 to 200 yards for freestyle and 100 to 200 yards breaststroke. I love freestyle because it’s adrenaline-driven, fast-paced & short distanced, where winning boils down to pure milliseconds. I love breaststroke because I can sprint through the whole event while maintaining my technique because the stroke requires a lot of technique to excel in.
I enjoy the individual challenges swimming gives me. This is because I have clear goals to achieve. Where when they are achieved, I feel accomplished, good, and confident. I feel as if I had accomplished something challenging and I can strive for higher and tougher goals.
When I'm not in school or practicing swimming, I like playing on my PS4. I enjoy watching comedy and laughing with family and friends. I like to make and edit videos, eating Asian food - especially Thai and Japanese. My mom and I aren't good at baking, though we keep trying, however, we can make boba tea!!!
