Indonesian Swimmer Glenn Victor Sutanto Never Takes a Training Day for Granted
The former Olympian-turned-coach and pageant king reflects on representing Indonesia for almost half his life
The swimmer diving into new challenges
Glenn Victor Sutanto has been representing Indonesia on the global stage since 2006. Until his retirement in 2023, he was a competitive swimmer, making it to the Southeast Asian Games and the Olympics. In 2024, he dove into international pageantry and landed third in the competition on his first try.
Funnily enough, this track record only sunk in for Glenn at last year’s pageant. “As they were announcing my background on stage, I started counting from 2006, and I thought: ‘Wow, I represented Indonesia for 17 years? I was really dedicated!’”
It is quite a long time, especially considering that Glenn wasn’t into the sport to begin with.
As a kid, Glenn had respiratory problems. His mother, a doctor, urged him to play sports to strengthen his lungs. Taekwondo, football, and tennis came into the picture—but he was averse to outdoor activities because of the heat. He settled with swimming not because it was literally cool, but because he wanted to hang out with a close friend who was taking up the sport.
From 2003 to 2006, Glenn trained in his home province of West Java. “One day, the national swimmers visited my club. I was around 14 then, small and skinny, and I saw these older, muscular athletes with such charisma,” he recalls. Glenn was so moved that, on that day, he willed to become a national athlete.
Just keep swimming
Glenn swam to victory early on. At the Southeast Asian Games, he dominated the 100-meter backstroke event, winning silver in 2007 and gold in 2009. He was riding high on a wave of victory that unfortunately crashed a year after.
“I was told that the Asian Games were filled with high-level competitors from other countries, so I was just encouraged to have fun and gain some experience,” Glenn recalls. “I was at an Australian training camp then, and I wasn’t taking it seriously.”
This mindset would eventually haunt Glenn. At the 50-meter butterfly event, Glenn’s time of 25.04 seconds was only good for ninth place, leaving him out of the finals. Even worse, his personal best for the event at the time—24.3 seconds, a record he garnered in another competition prior to the Asian Games—was enough for a podium finish.
“That was the biggest regret of my swimming career, thinking that I couldn’t make it to the finals. And then I learned that the third placer had a time of 24.31,” he laments. At that time, it had been many years since Indonesia won a medal for swimming at the Asian Games. It could have been Glenn, if only he worked harder, he admits.
Suffice to say, he’s never taken a training day for granted ever since.
Leading by example
Now that he’s a swimming coach, Glenn takes discipline even more seriously. He still trains six times a week, on top of his professional duties and family life. “I keep myself in shape so that I could properly teach my students how to swim. I want to show them that their coach is still capable, even if I’m not a professional athlete anymore.”
“I want to share my knowledge with others. It makes me happy to coach others toward reaching their goals and to know that I was part of their success.””
And even if he’s within a different arena now—pageantry and entertainment—Glenn still keeps that athletic spirit alive. Though ‘late’ at 35 and a ‘rookie’ in the scene, he’s won third place.
And while that might not be the bronze he missed in 2010, proving to himself that he can still thrive wherever he puts his mind to is worth its weight in gold.
Read the story in the pages of VMAN SEA 03: now available for purchase!
Photography Wong Sim and Putra Anugrah Jie
Special thanks Fanta Sabrina
