Agatha’s inspiring brilliance

There isn’t anyone in Southeast Asia who comes close to even matching Agatha Wong’s brilliance in wushu. Since 2017, she has collected six gold and two silver medals at the SEA Games. This year, Agatha recovered from a third place finish in taijiquan to dominate in taijijian to clinch the overall combined championship.

Agatha, 27, is taking up medicine at the University of the East, juggling her time between the classroom and the gym. Somehow, she manages to continue competing in the sport that her grandmother Eleanor Wong opened her eyes to at the age of eight. Before the ongoing SEA Games, Agatha represented the country at the 2025 World Games in Chengdu, finishing seventh of nine and at the 2025 World Championships in Brasilia, bagging a bronze in taijiquan. Both competitions prepared Agatha for the SEA Games.

In a profile published in The Philippines Yearbook 2025 with the theme “Beauty and Beyond,” Agatha disclosed how she endured injuries to bring honor to the country. “Nobody knew I was dealing with a back injury when I went out there to get a bronze (at the 2018 Asian Games),” she said. “When I was 14, I was down with chronic tendonitis. We do a lot of jumping in wushu and I developed jumper’s knee. At the Asian Games, I had a slipped disc in my lower back. I did a lot of therapy. I resisted surgery because I felt I might never be the same again. Luckily, I recovered.”

Wushu may not be a physical sport where you face an opponent but it’s just as challenging as any athletic event that is mano-a-mano. “In the taolu form events of taijiquan and taijijian where I participate, we perform from three minutes and 30 seconds to four minutes,” she said. “Not too many people realize that it takes years to perfect a routine but it takes just a few minutes to perform and a few seconds to flash your scores on the monitor. It’s a test of balance, agility, athletic skill and you need to look good.”

Agatha said she never imagined becoming a national athlete growing up. “My grandmother didn’t want my brother Christopher, my sister Ashley and me stuck at home when we were kids and our parents encouraged us to do sports,” she noted. “I just showed up for training every day because I enjoyed it. Later on, my coaches drafted me to the junior national team and I kept on going.”

Agatha earned a degree in Consular and Diplomatic Affairs at the College of St. Benilde. “Initially, I thought of becoming a lawyer but my personality isn’t fit for a lawyer,” she said. “There are lawyers on my father’s side and doctors on my mother’s side. I eventually decided to take up medicine and now, I try to balance my time studying, training and competing.”

Manila will host the World Wushu Championships in 2027 and the Asian Wushu Championships the next year. Wushu was one of eight sports proposed for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but failed to make the cut. It was a demonstration sport at the 2008 Beijing Games. “The international federation is trying its best to make it an official Olympic sport and it should be,” said Agatha. “It needs more justice and more people to know it’s a beautiful sport.” There are more than 120 million wushu practitioners all over the world and surely, the sport deserves a place on the Olympic stage.