Untold story on Yldefonso’s failure to bag gold medal in 1928 Olympics

THEManilaTimes continued receiving positive reactions on its series on the Philippines' past participations in the Olympic Games since an obscure sprinter David Nepomuceno first represented the country in the VIII Games in 1924 in Paris.

A little more than a fortnight after The Times came out with Nepomuceno’s futile exploit, Dr. Perry Mequi sent an e-mail message to this writer disclosing how Filipino International Swimming Federation (FINA) Hall of Famer Teofilo Yldefonso was denied of what could have been PH’s gold medal in the 1928 Summer Games in Amsterdam.

Yldefonso took home a bronze medal, which according to Mequi, a one-time gold medalist in the Asian Games and former chair of the Philippine Sports Commission, could have been a gold instead.

Mequi’s account of the story, as relayed to him by Professor Candido Bartolome, Yldefonso’s coach at that time, went like this:

“Here is an untold account re Yldefonso in the Amsterdam Olympics where, based on preliminary heats, he could have won the gold medal in the 200 breaststroke,” Mequi quoted Bartolome as saying.

“On the night before the finals, Bartolome adjusted the heater in Yldefonso’s room and instructed him not to readjust it for whatever reason” Mequi recounted.

“However, in the middle of the night, the room got so heated and warm, Yldefonso turned the heater down. He woke up the next morning with a cold, fever and sniffles, “he added.

“In the final race, he was leading throughout, but about three meters from the finish, he felt so exhausted allowing two other swimmers to overtake him,“he said in reference to eventual gold medal winner, Japanese Tsuruta and silver medalist Rademacher of Germany.

Yldefonso, Mequi insisted, could have become the first Filipino and Southeast Asian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal.

Tsuruta annexed the gold in two minutes and 48.8 seconds, Rademacherr, second place in 2:50.5 and the Filipino, third in 2:56.4. All three clocking went into the records as the new fastest in the world.

Yldefsonso, still coached by Bartolome, a Master’s Degree holder in PE from the US’s Springfield College, was a varsity swimmer there while taking his graduate studies, repeated four years later in Los Angeles.

He, thus emerged the only pool demon from this shore to bring home back-to-back Olympic bronze in the 200 breaststroke.

Bartolome, likewise, mentored Walter Brown in the 1958 Tokyo Asian Games, where the latter won a bronze medal in the men’s butterfly event. Brown later went on to become a successful businessman.

Bartolome also served as president of the Philippine Amateur Baseball Association (PABA) and longtime UAAP Secretary General.

He was responsible for the formation of the “Big Four” league which became the NCA in 1924 and, later the UAAP.

Mequi lamented, though, that for a longtime, he has been fighting for Bartolome’s induction to the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame for his “mentoring Yldefonso to double bronze medal conquest in the Olympics, for teaching physical educators, who were responsible in the promotion sports in the grassroots — without success.”