[EDITOR'S NOTE: Get to know the 22 Filipino athletes bound for the 2024 Paris Olympics through this SPIN.ph series]
ELREEN Ando will be competing in her second Olympic Games in Paris after what was a passing-of-the-torch moment in Philippine weightlifting.
In the run-up to the 2024 Olympics, Ando battled for a spot in the women’s 59kg division against Hidilyn Diaz, who three years ago won the Philippines' first-ever gold medal in the highest sporting conclave in the world.
Under Olympic qualification procedures, a nation can only have one representative per weight category.
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And at the end of the qualification period, it was Ando who captured that Paris ticket when she lifted 228 kilograms in the IWF World Cup last April in Bangkok, six more than what Diaz had registered during the same tournament.
The 25-year-old Ando made it to an elite group of Philippine athletes making a return to the Olympics along with Tokyo medalists Nesthy Petecio, Carlo Paalam, and Eumir Marcial, EJ Obiena, and Carlos Yulo.
Ando’s second stint in the Olympics was more than what she and her coaches were expecting.
Paris was not really the target for Ando, who gained an athletic scholarship after being recruited by University of Cebu - the same school that produced seven-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo, Ando
But her development accelerated.
She earned a berth in Tokyo by accumulating enough points to make it through the continental rankings in the women’s 64kg division, the two silvers and a bronze at the Asian Weightlifting Championship aiding Ando’s push to her first Olympics.
After her seventh-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics, Ando’s career hit new heights as she won a gold medal at the 2023 Southeast Asian Games and a bronze in the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
A medal may still be far-fetched for Ando in Paris, considering that Diaz didn't win an Olympic medal until her third appearance in Rio De Janeiro in 2016.
But with the way Ando’s career has been going, who knows?
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