[EDITOR'S NOTE: Get to know the 22 Filipino athletes bound for the 2024 Paris Olympics through this SPIN.ph series]
WHILE Kiyomi Watanabe will not be carrying the Philippine flag once more when the Paris 2024 Games officially opens with its Parade of Nations, she will nonetheless be a proud Filipino Olympian for the second straight time.
Watanabe is yet again set to compete in the women's -63 kg event after qualifying through the continental quota. In her last go-round in the quadrennial meet, she bowed to Spain's Cristina Cabana Perez in just 38 seconds in the Round of 32.
The Filipino-Japanese female judoka who traces her roots to Cebu was the Philippines' flag-bearer - alongside boxer Eumir Marcial - in the Tokyo Olympics.
And though her campaign didn't get as far as she had hoped, she earned the distinction as the first Filipina Olympian in judo.
Kiyomi's still the one
Three years later, that remains to be the case, as Watanabe is the lone female in the country's elite line of judokas in the Olympics which includes John Baylon, Jerry Dino, Benjie McMurray, Tomohiko Hoshina, and Kodo Nakano.
Now in her second consecutive try in the world meet, she's as determined as ever to add an Olympic medal to her collection of one Asian Games silver and four Southeast Asian Games gold medals.
The No. 92-ranked female judoka - whose last major tournament was the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China where she wound up seventh - stands far from the Top 17 who all automatically advance to the Olympiad.
By virtue of the rule that only one athlete per country can clinch a spot per gender and weight category, as well as the continental quota which reserves 10 berths for Asia, however, Watanabe was able to return to the grandest of stages.
As she attempts to bounce back from her previous Olympic defeat, the 27-year-old is bearing not just the flag, but trying to make more history for both the Philippines and Filipinas.
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