Featured Olympian
Teófilo Yldefonso
Teófilo Yldefonso: A hero in and out of the swimming pool
He was the first Filipino and first from Southeast Asia to win an Olympic medal. And up to this day (2021), he was still the only Filipino to have won multiple medals in the Olympic Games.
Yet Teófilo Yldefonso is more than just a hero in the swimming pool where he excelled as a swimmer. He was also a true-to-life hero who died fighting for his country in the second world war.
The pride of Piddig, Ilocos Norte was a self-taught swimmer who learned the skill in the waters of the Guisit river near his home. He and his brothers were orphaned at an early age, and being the eldest, he practically raised his siblings by earning from swimming -- he swam the river every day, helping women cross and carry clothes to wash.
At 17, he enlisted in the Philippine Scouts under the US Army since the country then was still a commonwealth of the United States. He gave honor to the country by representing the Scouts in swimming competitions locally and abroad.
He practically ruled the Far Eastern Games -- the precursor of the Asian Games -- winning the gold medal in 1923, 1927, 1930, and 1934. He pioneered the modern breaststroke and was invincible in all Philippines-versus-Formosa Dual Meets from 1929 to 1937.
He competed in the 1928 Amsterdam Games and 1932 Los Angeles Games in the 200m breaststroke and went home with bronze medals from both events.
He is not only the first Philippine athlete to win an Olympic medal, but also the only athlete to date to win back-to-back Olympic medals.
Called the Ilocano Shark, he had transformed the breaststroke style of his time by bringing the stroke more to the surface of the water. European textbooks called him “The Father of the Modern Breaststroke."
Still with no coach but training in the river as well as at military installation swimming pools, he competed in his third Olympics in 1936 Berlin placing 7th in the final of the 200m breaststroke. He was already a family man with four children.
When World War II broke out, Yldefonso and his brother Teodoro were among those who fought invading Japanese in the battle of Bataan. They survived the infamous Death March, He fell sick in the concentration camp.
Relatives of Yldefonso recount that the then US Army lieutenant was offered by his former swimming competitor, Yoshiyuki Tsuruta, then also a lieutenant in the Japanese Army, to be released from the concentration camp. But Yldefonso refused the offer as he did not want to leave his brother and his men behind.
On June 19, 1942, Yldefonso died in the arms of his brother. He was 39.
Yldefonso left behind a wife and four children. One his children, Norma, became a champion swimmer too, winning silver in the 2nd Asian Games in Manila in 1954.
To make his people remember Yldefonso, the National Historical Commission built a monument of him at the plaza of his hometown of Piddig in 2006.