Gone too soon, Lariba hailed as 'model athlete,' 'A-student'

MANILA, Philippines – Ian Lariba had gone too soon.

Two years after her stint in the Rio Olympics, Lariba of table tennis succumbed to acute myeloid leukemia last Sunday after battling her illness for 16 months.

She was only 23.

Lariba, known as “Yanyan,” was full of hope. Her Instagram page carried the hashtag #KayaMoYan (You can do it), and the words “Keep the Faith” and “Keep Going.”

She kept the faith until the end.

But her illness, a type of cancer that affects the bone marrow and blood, had taken over her young body. She had a relapse last August 16 and spent her last days at the hospital.

Some of her last posts on Instagram showed her carrying the Philippine flag during the opening rites of the Rio Olympics, and another one with her head, in a bonnet, leaning on the shoulders of her father, her eyes closed, yet smiling.

“Thank you for your enduring love and all the unending joy that you always give us! Love you!” wrote Lariba. That was on Fathers’ Day.

She described her mother as "Wonder Woman” and her younger sister, as spitting image of her, as “My Life Saver.”

Lariba will be remembered as both cheerful and shy.

“Yanyan was a model athlete,” said Jose Romasanta, chef-de-mission of the small Philippine delegation to the Rio Olympics.

“She’s an A-student, a hard worker and full of humility. She showed perseverance in sports and in life. She smiled through her difficulties,” said Romasanta.

Among her Rio batchmates, she was particularly close to marathoner Mary Joy Tabal and taekwondo athlete Elaine Alora.

Ian Lariba poses in a selfie with her fellow Rio Olympians. Abac Cordero

“You never fail to congratulate me in all of my races, Yan! Thanks for the friendship! You’re in a good place now,” said Tabal in her goodbye note.

Lariba had informed Tabal last August 31 that she had a relapse, and was confined at the hospital.

“Pero laban lang (But the fight continues). If we fall, we always have the choice to stand up and move again haha,” Lariba wrote Tabal.

Even when Alora was in Jakarta, competing in the just concluded Asian Games, she and Lariba exchanged text messages.

Then, according to Alora, the messages stopped coming.

“Yanyan,” the young Olympian, had to go.