Nation remembers Yldefonso's 1924 feat

MANILA, Philippines - It was exactly 84 years ago today when Teofilo Yldefonso won the Philippines’ first medal in the Olympics.

It was in Amsterdam, on Aug. 8, 1924, where Yldefonso, then 25 years old, bagged the bronze medal in the men’s 200m breaststroke.

The pride of Piddig in Ilocos Norte, who learned how to swim as a young boy along the Guisit river, timed 2 minutes 56.44 seconds behind Germany’s Erich Rademacher (2:50.3) and Japan’s Yoshiyuki Tsuruta (2:48.8).

It was a terrific swim for Yldefonso because his time was just a split second off the Olympic record of 2:56.0 set by American Robert Skelton in the 1924 Games in Paris.

It’s just that the two swimmers ahead of him in Amsterdam were faster.

Yldefonso became the only Filipino to win two Olympic medals as he also won the bronze in the same event in 1932 in Los Angeles. In Berlin in 1936, as a 34-year-old, he finished seventh.

Yldefonso fought the Japanese in Bataan, and though he survived the Bataan Death March, he died at the concentration camp in Capas, Tarlac on June 19, 1942. He was only 39.

According to Wikipedia, Yldefonso’s remains were never recovered.

It is today, when the London Olympics nears its closing stages, that the Philippines should remember and honor Yldefonso’s heroics.

Yldefonso racked up a total of 144 medals in 16 years of active competition until 1937. He is the great-great grandfather of another Filipino swimmer Daniel Coakley, winner of two gold medals in the 2007 Southeast Asian Games.

Philippine sports historian Red Dumuk reminded The STAR of this special day in Philippine sports.

He is one of only eight Filipinos ever to win a medal in the Olympics. The others are Simeon Toribio (bronze, men’s high jump in 1932), Jose Villanueva (bronze, boxing in 1932), Miguel White (bronze, 400m hurdles in 1936), Anthony Villanueva (silver, boxing in 1964), Leopoldo Serrantes (bronze, boxing in 1988), Roel Velasco (bronze, boxing in 1992) and Mansueto Velasco (silver, boxing in 1996).

Unless long-distance runner Rene Herrera or long-jumper Marestella Torres (if she advanced yesterday) pull off the mother of miracles in London, this date, Aug. 8, will only be remembered as the day the Philippines won its first medal in the Olympics.