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“Huh, really ah? That’s how you speak?” That’s the reaction Singapore open water swimmer Artyom Lukasevits gets all the time.

With his blonde hair, fair skin and Eastern European name, most people assume the 21-year-old is a “foreign import” — until he starts speaking.

Born and raised in Singapore to Estonian-born parents, Artyom sounds every bit the local boy, complete with effortless Singlish and kopi orders. He even orders cai fan by pointing and going “zhe ge na ge” (this and that).

Artyom recently gained attention after Mediacorp posted a clip of him speaking with a Singaporean accent at the World Aquatics Championships, where he competed in the 10km open water race. 

Netizens couldn’t get enough of how “undeniably Singaporean” he sounded, something Artyom’s long used to.

“Every time I meet someone new, they’re surprised by how I speak,” the Ngee Ann Polytechnic grad tells 8days.sg. 

“But I grew up here. I've surrounded myself with people who speak like me, and that's just where it came from. To me, I talk normally, but sometimes I forget that on the outside I'm Caucasian.” 

Artyom, who’s also fluent in Mandarin and Russian, attended Tanjong Katong Primary School and the Singapore Sports School (SSP). He will be enlisting for National Service in early 2026.

His younger brother, 19, and sister, eight, sound just like him, he adds.

Another reaction he often gets?

“When I say my name is Artyom, a lot of people think it’s Ah Tiong,” he laughs, referring to the term used to refer to Chinese nationals.

“When I met my girlfriend's parents for the first time, they were like, ‘Huh you’re Ah Tiong?’” “Maybe that could be my nickname,” he quips.

Food-wise, he’s as local as they come. When he’s overseas for swim meets, he’s usually the first in his team to start craving hawker fare. 

“A few days in, I’ll already be like, ‘I don’t want to eat potatoes again. I just want chicken rice or ban mian,’” says Artyom. 

His all-time favourite? The soupy ban mian from the coffeeshop just down the road from SSP, which he orders in Mandarin, of course.

Artyom credits his parents as his biggest supporters. He started competitive swimming at nine, entered junior meets by 11, and eventually earned a spot at SSP, where he developed as an athlete.

In poly, he began exploring open water swimming, which led to stints in the Asian Games and World Championships. 

At the recent World Aquatics Championships, he placed 43rd in the 10km open water race, emerging as the top Southeast Asian swimmer in the field. He now has his sights set on gold at the upcoming SEA Games in December, and a shot at qualifying for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

When he’s not training or racing, Artyom’s a self-proclaimed “huge nerd”. He’s obsessed with physics and math, and is always “reading up on something scientific”.

“Every time I want to watch something, I'll put on a math documentary or Nobel Prize explanation and my family will be like, ‘Switch channel, so boring!’” he laughs.

And like many Gen Zs, he’s “chronically online”. 

During his poly internship at Mazda, he ran their TikTok account, quickly becoming the face of their videos and go-to trendspotter. One clip he helped produce even went viral.

Strangely enough, his personal TikTok account is completely empty.

“I don’t really like posting videos about myself,” the camera shy Artyom admits. “I’ll do it when I have to like after a race to thank supporters or during a media thing, but I don’t push myself out there.”

Photos: 8days.sg, Artyom Lukasevits, Singapore Aquatics

Watch highlights from the 2025 World Aquatics Championships on mewatch.