[EDITOR'S NOTE: Get to know the 22 Filipino athletes bound for the 2024 Paris Olympics through this SPIN.ph series]
KAYLA Sanchez already knows what it feels like to step onto the podium and get a medal around her neck on the biggest sports stage of all, the Summer Olympics.
Sanchez brought home two medals for Canada from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as part of the relay team which won silver in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay, and bronze in the 4x100m medley.
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Winning a medal in the Olympics sure might be an amazing feeling, but to head back to her roots for a chance to win one for a country that’s been starved of a swimming medal for 92 years?
That would be magical.
That’s exactly what Sanchez will be gunning for as she competes in the 100m freestyle in the 2024 Paris Olympics, bringing in valuable experience with her in the Philippines after formalizing her switch from Canada back in 2022.
"It was a matter of timing and a question of timing and now is a good time to bring what I do and what I love here in the Philippines," she said in her interview with Spin’s Gerry Ramos when she was introduced to the press as the newest part of the team.
"I think it's a bigger picture of and a bigger meaning of using what I do and what I love to inspire Filipinos like me to commit to sports and show what they are capable of."
Two years later, Sanchez now gets the chance to shine for the Philippine squad who hasn’t seen a local swimmer set foot on that podium since Teofilo Yldefonso won it in Los Angeles.
And this being the Olympics, all eyes will certainly be on the daughter of two Filipino immigrants who seeked better lives in the great white north.
It wasn’t an easy decision for Sanchez to head back home, especially since she’s leaving behind a program that has already produced nine gold medal winners, and have also taken 18 silver medals and 28 bronzes.
But there’s a certain pride in winning one for her heritage, and she knows what winning for this country will mean not only for the program, but for the kids who are dreaming to one day swim their way to an Olympic medal.
“In the end, I'm proud to be a Filipino, and if I inspire young kids and Filipinos in general just to start swimming, to start sports, it just means the world to me.”
Sanchez comes into the Olympics being the national record holder in the 50m freestyle at 25.28 and the 100m freestyle at 54.25.
She’ll join Jarod Hatch in the lean Philippine swimming delegation for Paris.
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