Apsara Katarina Sakbun (Khmer: សាក់ប៊ុន អប្សរា កាតារីណា, romanized: Sakboun Absaara Katarina; born February 21, 2001) is an American-Cambodian swimmer. She qualified to represent Cambodia at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
 Sakbun at the 2023 SEA Games | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American / Cambodian |
| Born | February 21, 2001 |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Swimming |
| College team | Ball State Cardinals |
Biography
editSakbun was born on February 21, 2001, and grew up in Terre Haute, Indiana.[1][2] Her father is a Cambodian immigrant to the U.S., while her mother immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica.[2] Her sister Haley is also a swimmer, while her brother Brandon was elected mayor of Terre Haute in 2023.[3][4] Growing up, she participated in a number of sports, including tennis, track, gymnastics and dance, before focusing solely on competitive swimming by high school.[5]
Sakbun attended Terre Haute South Vigo High School and competed for four years in freestyle and backstroke events.[6] She was an all-conference and all-state selection and won two sectional championship in the 100 backstroke and one in the 100 freestyle.[6][7] At South Vigo, she set records in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke.[7] She committed to swim in college for the Ball State Cardinals.[6]
As a freshman at Ball State in 2019–20, Sakbun helped set the school 200 freestyle relay record and placed 10th at the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Championships in the 50 freestyle.[7] She was named Academic All-MAC in 2020–21 and placed fifth at the MAC Championships in the 50 freestyle.[7] She repeated as an Academic All-MAC selection in 2021–22 and was a part of the relay team that set school records in the 200 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay.[7] She won her third Academic All-MAC selection in 2022–23 and helped break program records in the 400 freestyle relay and 200 freestyle relay.[7] By 2023, Sakbun appeared in the school record books 15 times.[5]
In 2023, Sakbun participated at the SEA Games representing Cambodia, where she set national records in three different events.[2] That year, she moved from Terre Haute to Charlotte, North Carolina, and became an operations analyst for Wells Fargo.[5] In North Carolina, she joined the Dowd YMCA and trained six days a week.[5] In 2024, Cambodia qualified a swimmer for the 2024 Summer Olympics and Sakbun was notified that she was the top choice to fill the spot; she accepted, although if she had declined, her sister would have competed at the Olympics instead.[5] She was selected to compete in the 50 m freestyle event at the Olympics.[8][9]
References
edit- ^ "Sakbun Apsara Katarina". World Aquatics.
- ^ a b c "Former Terre Haute swimmer Apsara Sakbun to represent Cambodia in Summer Olympics". Tribune-Star. June 26, 2024 – via Yahoo!.
- ^ Bennett, Joey (February 16, 2023). "Sakbun sisters continue swim careers at Ball State". Tribune-Star. Archived from the original on July 16, 2024 – via Wayback Machine.
- ^ Drake, Garrett (June 27, 2024). "Terre Haute native qualifies for 2024 Olympics in Paris". WTWO.
- ^ a b c d e Connuck, Shane (July 12, 2024). "How a 23-year-old Wells Fargo analyst moved to Charlotte and made her first Olympics". The Charlotte Observer – via archive.ph.
- ^ a b c Keith, Braden (December 23, 2018). "Apsara Sakbun Commits to Ball State Cardinals". SwimSwam.
- ^ a b c d e f "Apsara Sakbun". Ball State Cardinals.
- ^ Berney, Jack (June 27, 2024). "Former South swimmer Apsara Sakbun to swim for Cambodia in 2024 Olympics". WANE-TV.
- ^ "Swimming Alumna Apsara Sakbun to Represent Cambodia in Paris Olympics". Ball State Cardinals. June 28, 2024.