Consistent greatness: A lookback on the Philippines’ multi-time Olympic medalists

MANILA, Philippines – There are multiple levels of greatness for athletes when it comes to the Olympics, the highest possible level of sports competition done only once every four years.

The mere qualification for the quadrennial showpiece is a huge achievement in itself, much more so if one actually gets a coveted medal, regardless of color.

Then comes the ultimate test: proving you’re no one-hit world wonder in your sport and actually earning multiple medals in the Games, whether through ruling different events or excelling at your craft across more than one Olympic cycle.

In the Philippines’ 100-year history of joining the modern Games, only four athletes – all extraordinary legends of their craft – have earned the distinction of not only giving the country worldwide recognition, but doing so more than once and cementing their places atop local sports lore.

Teofilo Yldefonso (swimming)

No list of Filipino sporting legends would ever be complete or legitimate without mentioning the man who started it all, the man who put a young nation on a worldwide sporting map: Teofilo Yldefonso.

A proud son of Ilocos Norte who learned swimming in the military, Yldefonso made history as the first-ever Filipino and first-ever Southeast Asian, for that matter, to win an Olympic medal with a bronze in the 200-meter breaststroke in the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, before nailing another bronze in the 1932 Los Angeles edition.

A war hero and breaststroke technique pioneer – even hailed as the “Father of the Modern Breaststroke” – Yldefonso died serving the Philippines while in Japanese captivity at just age 38 in 1942 after previously surviving the heinous Bataan Death March.

Hidilyn Diaz (weightlifting)

It took 89 long years before Yldefonso’s multi-medal achievement was duplicated, as weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz ended a 97-year search for the Philippines’ first-ever gold upon ruling the women’s 55-kilogram category in the 2020 Olympics, moved to 2021 due to the pandemic.

Before her golden watershed moment in Tokyo, Diaz labored through three straight Olympics from the 2008 Beijing Games before finally breaking through in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro edition, winning silver in the women’s 53kg event to snap a then-20-year medal drought for the Philippines.

After being bumped off from 2024 Olympic qualification at the women’s 59kg level by compatriot Elreen Ando, the 33-year-old pride of Zamboanga City remains an avid supporter and mentor for the Philippine weightlifting team.

Nesthy Petecio (boxing)

As a clear-cut sign of the Philippines’ improving Olympic fortunes, it didn’t take another nine decades before the country relished another multi-medalist, as boxer Nesthy Petecio followed up her 2020 Tokyo silver with a 2024 Paris bronze in the women’s 57kg category.

Rising to fame as the first Filipina boxer to win an Olympic medal in the Tokyo Games, Petecio served as a rightful heir alongside fellow star slugger Carlo Paalam to the legendary Onyok Velasco, who also won silver in the 1996 edition, the last Olympics where the Philippines snagged a medal before 2016.

With the threat of boxing being scrapped altogether from the 2028 Los Angeles Games due to organizational issues, the 32-year-old Petecio has publicly contemplated retirement from international competition, but the Davao del Sur star assured fans that her door will remain open if opportunities arise anew.

Carlos Yulo (gymnastics)

Gymnast Carlos Yulo elevated his status from mere medal hopeful to overnight Filipino sports legend after capturing lightning in a bottle twice, not only claiming a historic gymnastics gold in the 2024 Paris floor exercise but also ruling the vault less than 24 hours later.

At just 24 years old, the 4-foot-11 dynamo now stands alone atop the country’s individual Olympic medal tally after going home empty-handed in his first worldwide foray in 2021.

Set to enjoy a deluge of deserved monetary and material incentives, the pride of Manila now sets himself up for another Olympic medal campaign in Los Angeles at age 28. – Rappler.com