Inspiring athletes with Bea’s story
(1st of 2 parts)
Tony Lucero, 84, and his wife Leana, 75, are the proud parents of a legendary Filipina athlete who competed in gymnastics, taekwondo and wushu over close to 30 years of her life. Bea Lucero, 45, is now married to sportsman and businessman Jean Henri Lhuillier with four children Stephan, 17, Sebastian, 14, Dominique, 10 and Julien, 8.
A few days ago, I sat down with the Luceros to talk about their daughter and learn from what she went through in sports. They were candid in relating the good and bad times that marked Bea’s amazing sports career. My purpose for reaching out to the Luceros was to inspire aspiring athletes by retelling Bea’s story.
At the 1987 Southeast Asian Games in Jakarta, Bea was the darling of the competitions, bringing home two golds and three silvers. She was a shoo-in to make it to the 1988 Seoul Olympics until the ugly incidence of politics got in the way. A controversy involving the leadership of the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) led to the NSA president Manny Angeles and secretary-general Sotero Tejada marginalizing athletes who took the opposite side. POC president Jose Sering formed an arbitration committee made up of Buddy Andrada, Celso Dayrit and Gen. Rene Cruz to sort out the problem where the GAP was accused of railroading results to favor certain athletes in a national meet.
* * * In the fallout, Bea was an innocent victim. The GAP deliberately withheld an invitation for her to perform in a world qualifying event for the Olympics and she lost the chance to take her act to the biggest stage of sports by default. For over two years, Bea had labored at the National Academy of Artistic Gymnastics in Eugene, Oregon, to polish her routine with coaches Tony Ammons and Bob Levesque. Her dream was to represent the country at the Olympics and calloused politicians masquerading as sportsmen deprived her of making that dream come true.
Bea went to Seoul just the same, not as an athlete but as a TV broadcaster to cover gymnastics and taekwondo. The exposure to taekwondo opened her eyes to try another sport. Within 10 months, she earned her black belt and impressed Korean coach Master Sung Chon Hong who said the Philippines would be unbeatable in international competitions if the team was made up of Bea Luceros.
For three years, Bea lived and breathed taekwondo which later brought her to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. She won a bronze medal in the featherweight division of the demonstration sport. Bea lost to Turkey’s Aysegul Ergin, 2-1, in the semifinals to settle for the bronze. Ergin went on to lose to Chinese-Taipei’s Tung Ya Ling in the final.
* * * “Bea used to spar with men and that’s how she got better,” recalled Tony. “Eventually, the other girls in the taekwondo team sparred with men, too. Bea’s always been competitive. She realized her dream of representing the country in the Olympics and went all out for the gold. Finishing with the bronze was quite an accomplishment.”
Bea then focused on her UP studies and later earned a degree in communications. She became a popular TV talk show host and a much-sought-after celebrity in launch parties. After getting married to Lhuillier, Bea decided to concentrate on family life.
“Once, she went riding at the Polo Club and quickly caught the attention of people who were watching,” said Tony. “She overheard someone saying she could compete in equestrian. That turned her off completely and right then and there, she stopped riding. She just didn’t want to go through the hardship of competition with the politics all over again.”