Kayla Noelle Sanchez, here working out with the Philippine team, could be an international medal machine for the country. INQUIRER/June Navarro
Kayla Noelle Sanchez gracefully cut through the water like a speeding locomotive in the pool as the Philippine national junior swim team watched in awe while joining her in practice.
It’s quite too early to flex what Sanchez is capable of achieving, but the newest toast of the town in Philippine swimming is more than competent to bring the country to the individual medal podium of the Olympics.
Sanchez, who already made history as the first Filipino woman swimmer to win relay medals in the Olympics while representing Team Canada last year in Tokyo, is a bonafide Olympic medal contender in at least two individual events—the 50m and 100m freestyle—precisely based on records.
“I still have a lot to learn. I’m happy and excited to meet my teammates. I know I will improve swimming here in a new training environment,” said Sanchez on her first training session with Team Philippines recently under national coach Sherwyn Santiago at the Philippine Sports Commission pool at Philsports in Pasig City.
Sanchez owns a personal best of 53.12 seconds in the 100m free she accomplished in the Tokyo Olympics, just a fraction of a second behind Australian Cate Campbell’s 52.52 Olympic bronze medal. That clocking is better than the existing Asian Games record of 53.27 set by Japanese Rikako Ikee in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia and by far superior to the current SEA Games standard of 54.74 courtesy of Singaporean Quah Ting Wen.
Sanchez could quench the country’s thirst for an Olympic medal in 50m free with a best time of 24.68 when she captured the gold medal in the Olympic trials in Canada prior to the Tokyo Summer Games, another split-second difference from the bronze medal of Denmark’s Pernille Blume (24.21).
No Filipino tanker has stepped on the medal podium of the Olympics since Teofilo Yldefonso claimed a pair of bronze medals in the 1928 Amsterdam and 1932 Los Angeles Games.
The 21-year-old transferee to the PH swim team is likewise a top competitor for the gold in the Asian Games in three events (50m, 100m, 200m free) and a possible record-breaker in six existing Southeast Asian Games records (50m, 100m, 200m free, 50m and 100m backstroke and 200m individual medley).
She’s also bound to erase current Philippine standards in all of these events, based on the records provided by the Philippine Swimming Inc., which worked for the transfer of Sanchez since 2017.
“I know it will be different, but change is always good and I’ll be looking to try new training styles,” said Sanchez, who grew up in Toronto, Canada.
Born to Filipino parents Susana and Noel from Mabalacat, Pampanga, Sanchez helped Team Canada secure a silver medal (women’s 4x100m freestyle relay) and a bronze (4x100m medley relay) in Tokyo last year.
Sanchez can kick off her stint with the national team in the Fina World Championships next year in Fukuoka, Japan after going through a 12-month residency in the country.
For the 2024 Paris Olympics, Sanchez needs a three-year residency, but could be shortened with the help of the International Swimming Federation or Fina, the International Olympic Committee and the POC, according to national coach Aldo Tong.
“Now that I’m here in the Philippines, there’s a lot more opportunities to swim once I develop a strong relationship with my coaches and teammates. I excelled in freestyle events, that has been my biggest role on the international stage,” said Sanchez.
Aside from the 50m free, Sanchez’s performances in the 100m and 200m free (1:57.23) could gift the nation gold medals in these events in the Asian Games and could end the long wait for a victory in the Asiad pool since William Wilson topped the men’s 200m free in 1982 New Delhi, India.
In the SEA Games? Sanchez could easily collect six golds and shatter the records in these events as well.