With one historic gold, two silvers, and one bronze, the Philippines triumphed as the top-performing Southeast Asian nation for taking home four medals overall in the recently concluded Tokyo Summer Olympics 2020 last July 23 to August 8.
Zamboanga-homegrown weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz began the team’s streak of success as she ended the Philippines’ century-long struggle and achieved its first-ever gold medal in the women’s 55kg division, finishing off with an Olympic record of 97kg in snatch and 127kg in clean and jerk.
Three of the non-gold medals came from the boxing arena, starting with Nesthy Petecio, who made history as the first Filipina boxer to bag an Olympic medal. Petecio bowed to silver when Japanese opponent Sena Irie won by a unanimous decision.
Her milestone was followed by Carlo Paalam, garnering the country’s second silver medal after losing to a split decision versus Great Britain’s Galal Yafai in the men’s flyweight boxing finals. Completing the country’s Olympic performance, another Zamboanga native Eumir Marcial secured bronze in the men’s middleweight boxing semifinals following a split decision loss against Oleksandr Khyzniak of Ukraine.
Despite earning no medals, several athletes climbed their way to the final 10 as finalists and semifinalists of their respective events. Carlos Yulo placed fourth in the men’s vault finals with 0.017 points away from bronze, while Margielyn Didal finished seventh in the women’s street events with 7.52 points.
On her first Olympic appearance, Elreen Ando also ranked seventh in the women’s 64kg weightlifting event. Adding to the list are Yuka Saso who finished ninth in the women’s golf, and swimmer Remedy Rule who made it to the semifinals of the women’s 200m butterfly event.
Other notable representatives from the Team Philippines include EJ Obiena who secured the 11th spot in men’s pole vault, Bianca Pagdanganan of women’s golf who placed 43rd, and Cris Nievares who marked the 23rd spot as the first Filipino rower to quality in the men’s single sculls event of the Olympics.
The remaining athletes who made up the 19-man team of the Philippines include golfer Juvic Pagunsan, shooter Jayson Valdez, swimmer Luke Gebbie, track and field athlete Kristina Knott, taekwondo representative Kurt Barbosa, boxer Irish Magno, and judoka Kiyomo Watanabe.