Rio Paralympics bronze medalist Medina dead at 51

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Table Tennis community was plunged into mourning on Thursday following the death of 2016 Rio Paralympics bronze medalist Josephine Medina.

She was 51.

Medina, who is one of only two Philippine Paralympic medalists, broke a 16-year medal drought in Brazil when she defeated Juliane Wolf of Germany in her second Paralympics stint after first competing in 2012.

Her death coincided with Team Philippines' current campaign in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics that has been marred with positive COVID-19 tests for three Filipino athletes.

The 51-year-old was most successful in the ASEAN Para Games where she has five gold medals.

In the Asian Para Games, she has two silver medals and one bronze medal.

She also qualified to the 2018 World Para Table Tennis Championship.

Medina's death came on the third death anniversary of another Filipino table tennis icon, Ian Lariba.

Lariba died on Sept. 2, 2018 after a battle with Leukemia. She was the first-ever Filipino to qualify for table tennis in the Olympics.