Tankers hope to make waves

The first Olympic medal won by the Philippines came in swimming in 1928. Teofilo Yldefonso took the bronze in the 200-meter breaststroke at the Amsterdam Games.

In 1932, Yldefonso repeated the feat in the same event. Today, the Ilocano remains the only Filipino to win more than one Olympic medal in history.

Boxing has accounted for five of the country’s nine Olympic medals and the only two silvers so far. Swimming brought in two bronzes, courtesy of Yldefonso, and athletics, another two bronzes, from high jumper Simeon Toribio in 1932 and 400-meter hurdler Miguel White in 1936.

No Filipino swimmer has captured a gold at the Asian Games since 200-meter freestyler Billy Wilson in 1982.

But at the Vietnam Southeast Asian (SEA) Games last year, Miguel Molina hit paydirt twice in the 200-meter freestyle and 1,500-meter freestyle. The freestyle team of Molina, Miguel Mendoza, Mark Kalaw and Carlo Piccio also topped the 4x200 relay to boost the country’s harvest to three golds–a dramatic improvement from the shutout in Kuala Lumpur in 2001. The light at the end of the tunnel shone brightly.

Swimming is one of two compulsory events for participating countries in the Olympics.

As in Sydney, there are 16 swimming events for men and women in Athens. Some 800 tankers are expected to compete for medals. Each country is allowed a maximum of two qualified swimmers in the A category where the standard entry time is higher than in the B category where the limit is only one competitor per nation.

Among the 16 Filipino athletes vying for honors in Athens, five are swimmers who qualified in the B category. Swimming has the most athletes in the delegation which has four boxers, three taekwondo jins, two tracksters, a shooter and an archer. In Sydney, the Philippines sent four swimmers.

Four of the five tankers train abroad. They are Molina, 20; Mendoza, 22; James Bernard Walsh, 17; and Jaclyn Pangilinan, 18. The lone locally-trained swimmer is Timmy Chua, 21.

Only Mendoza is a repeat Olympian. He is the 10th Filipino swimmer to compete in two Olympics after Jikirum Adjaluddin (1932-36), Sambiano Basanung (1948-52), Bana Sailani (1956-60), Chito Ayesa (1968-72), Jairulla Jaitulla (1972-84), Ral Rosario (1972-76), Eric Buhain (1988-92), Lee Concepcion (1988-92) and Raymond Papa (1992-96). The three-time Olympic Filipino swimmers are Yldefonso (1928-32-36), Amman Jalmaani (1964-68-72) and Akiko Thomson (1988-92-96).

Philippine Amateur Swimming Association training director Anthony Lozada said the tankers’ goals in Athens are to set new records–individual and national, race against SEA Games times as a gauge of progress in gearing for the Manila staging next year and qualify for at least the quarterfinals.

Lozada said it’s a tall order to advance to the top 16 from the elimination heats considering only Molina is ranked in the top 40 of his events. To make it to the top 20 in any event would be an achievement, noted Lozada.

Alex Lim Keng Liat of Malaysia and Joscelin Yeo of Singapore are the only Southeast Asians expected to qualify in the top eight or the finals of their swimming events.

Molina is competing in the 200-meter freestyle, 200-meter breaststroke, 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley.

Molina’s parents are both teachers in Japan where he began swimming in age-group competitions. He is a University of California at Berkeley varsity swimmer and trains under coaches Mike Bottom and Nort Thornton. Molina has represented the country in two SEA Games, the Asian Games and the World Championships in Barcelona last year.

Molina qualified for Athens by eclipsing the B category times in four events at the last SEA Games. He clocked 1:52.89 under the qualifying mark of 1:55.08 in the 200-meter freestyle, 2:20.81 under 2:20.91 in the 200-meter breaststroke, 2:05.57 under 2:08.67 in the 200-meter individual medley and 4:23.26 under 4:33.18 in the 400-meter individual medley. However, his times were way off the world records. In the 200-meter freestyle, for instance, the world record is 1:44.06 set by Ian Thorpe of Australia.

Mendoza is entered in the 400-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle. He went to the US to train five years ago and qualified for the Sydney Olympics within four months of training at the Bolles school in Jacksonville, Florida.

Mendoza is now enrolled at the University of Georgia. He has broken the Philippine record in the 400-meter freestyle thrice and is the first Filipino ever to clock under four minutes.

At the Vietnam SEA Games, Mendoza clinched his ticket to Athens by clocking 15:49.55 under the B category mark of 16:00.15 in the 1,500-meter freestyle and 4:03.54 under 4:03.61 in the 400-meter freestyle.

Walsh, one of two boys, was born in Pensacola, Florida. His father Rob is a US Navy medical officer. His mother Chona Remandaban’s roots are in Lipa, Batangas. She finished her medical studies at Far Eastern University in 1980, left for the US two years later and now works in a Naval clinic at Virginia Beach as a pharmacy supervisor.

Walsh’s first sport was taekwondo which he learned at the age of 3. A former national black belt champion, he ranked first in the US in the 200-meter butterfly for the 13-14 age group. Walsh topped the 100-meter butterfly state competitions this year.

Walsh is a freshman at the University of Florida where he plans to major in Exercise Physiology for pre-med before proceeding to medical proper. He clocked 2:04.13 in the 200-meter butterfly at the North Carolina Charlotte Ulna Swimming Championships to book a spot in Athens for cracking the B qualifying mark of 2:04.56. The world record in the event is 1:53.93 held by Michael Phelps of the US.

Pangilinan was timed in at 2:35.01 in the 200-meter breaststroke at this year’s USA Spring National Championships in Orlando to beat the B qualifying mark of 2:35.99. She also bagged a ticket to the 100-meter breaststroke by clocking 1:12.82 at the USA National Championships in Maryland last year.

Pangilinan’s father Florante was born in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, and graduated at the University of Santo Tomas with a commerce degree in 1966. After working at SGV, he left for the US and is now the controller of a division in a New York advertising company. Her mother Audrey is an American of Syrian descent.

Last April, Pangilinan visited the Philippines for the first time and competed against national tankers in a San Pablo meet. She swept the 50-meter and 100-meter breaststroke and 200-meter individual medley events.

"I feel so lucky to be given the opportunity to be a member of the Philippine Olympic team," said Pangilinan, an incoming Harvard University freshman. "I also feel a great responsibility to represent the country."

Chua clocked 1:04.93 in the 100-meter breaststroke at the Hong Kong Division I Competitions a few days before the July 21 entry deadline to book a ticket to Athens by cracking the qualifying mark of 1:05.02. The University of the Philippine engineering student is a two-time SEA Games, an Asian Games and World Championships veteran who trains under Japanese coach Ryuzo Ishikawa.

In 1999, Chua spent three months training at the Victoria Institute of Sports in Melbourne under coach Buddy Porter.

Realistically, the five swimmers aren’t expected to bring home any medals from Athens but they’re capable of making a big splash just the same in preparation for the SEA Games here next year.