[Third of a five-part Olympic series]
SWIMMING is considered as one of the most medal-rich sports for multi-sport events like the Olympics.
And the Philippines has no shortage of exceptional tankers with Pinoys making great use of our geography to excel in the sport.
Teofilo Yldefonso is the prime example for that, taking home bronze medals in men’s 200m breaststroke in both Amsterdam 1928 and Los Angeles 1932.
Since then, however, the Philippines has been in a constant search of that next great swimmer, one that both Jarod Hatch and Kayla Sanchez would like to snap in Paris.
That doesn’t mean that it was a difficult search, with the Philippines even entrusting flag bearing duties for the opening ceremonies in the Olympics to swimmers three times before.
Gertrudez Lozada was the first in Melbourne 1956.
“Tuding” was selected after she got two silver medals in the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo.
Lozada competed in two events Down Under, but failed to make a mark in her lone Olympic appearance. She clocked in at 1:13.7 in the women’s 100m freestyle, dead-last among 35 competitors, and timed at 5:34.2 in the women’s 400m freestyle, also at the bottom among 26 tankers.
Two decades later, it was Gerardo “Ral” Rosario who was given the duty in Montreal 1976.
Competing in his second Olympics after first qualifying in Munich 1972, Rosario was reeling off a solid showing in the 1974 Asian Games in Tehran where he won two silver and three bronze medals.
But he, too, crashed out in the three events he competed in.
The Ilocos Sur native timed at 56.0 seconds in men’s 100m freestyle (39th out of 41), 1:02.08 in men’s 100m backstroke (37th out of 41), and 2:13.89 in men’s 200m backstroke (31st out of 33).
Eric Buhain was the last swimmer to be named as the flagbearer in Seoul 1988, riding high from his four-gold medal haul in the 1987 Southeast Asian Games in Jakarta.
He, however, also did not advance in the four events he swam.
The Batangueno tanker timed 57.17 in men’s 100m butterfly (31st out of 55), 2:05.32 in men’s 200m butterfly (32nd out of 42), a then-national record of 24.26 in men’s 50m freestyle (tied for 33rd out of 71), and 1:56.84 in men’s 200m freestyle (44th out of 63).
Buhain qualified for his second Olympics in Los Angeles 1992 but no longer got the flag bearing duty. He went on to become the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman and now serves as the representative for Batangas’ first district.
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