By Ashley Bercasio
The Philippines lost one of its brightest sports stars on Wednesday, August 10, with the passing of Lydia de Vega-Mercado at the age of 57.
Dubbed as Asia’s fastest woman and sprint queen in the 1980s, de Vega fought the biggest battle of her life but eventually succumbed to breast cancer after four years.
Stephanie Mercado-de Koenigswarter, de Vega’s daughter, confirmed the news via a Facebook post.
“On behalf of our family, it is with absolute grief that I announce the death of my mother, Lydia de Vega this evening, August 10, 2022, at the Makati Medical Center,” de Koenigswarter said.
“She fought the very good fight and is now at peace.”
De Koenigswarter, an athlete herself, who played for the De La Salle Lady Spikers, revealed her mother’s deteriorating condition last July 20.
“My dearest mother, Lydia de Vega, is in very critical condition due to complications caused by her stage 4 Breast cancer condition. She was diagnosed with this in 2018 and has been silently fighting the disease for the past 4 years. As the disease is progressing, her condition is quickly worsening despite undergoing many procedures including brain surgery,” Koenigswarter said in a social media post.
Prayers and financial support poured for the embattled Philippine sports icon in hopes of overturning her stage four cancer.
WATCH: PTV video highlights of Asia's Sprint Queen of the 1980's Lydia de Vega-Mercado. #PTVSports #LydiaDeVega pic.twitter.com/KkbxmJ7cRE
— PTV Sports PH (@ptvphsports) August 11, 2022
De Vega was a two-time Olympian (1984 and 1988) and has won four gold medals in the Asian Athletics Championships, dominating both the women’s 100 and 200-meter dash events in 1983 and 1987.
The Meycauayan, Bulacan-native athlete ruled the women’s 100m dash in the 1982 and 1986 editions of the Asian Games.
De Vega caught the public’s eye in the 1981 Southeast Asian Games held in Manila after dominating the 200 and 400-meter events at the age of 17.
Performing in front of a raucous crowd inside the Rizal Memorial Stadium, De Vega recorded 23.54 seconds to eclipse the 23.7-second Asian record that time.
She went on to win seven more gold medals in the biennial meet, bagging her last two during the 1993 meet in Singapore.
Michael Keon, the executive director of Gintong Alay program, which produced successful athletes in the 80s, recounted De Vega’s humble yet impressive beginnings.
“Lydia was one of the original athletes that came to Baguio City. She was one of the original Gintong Alay athletes that came up in late 1979,” Keon said.
“Lydia trained with us for a period of I think, four to five months, and in the first competition that Lydia ever had under Gintong Alay was when Gintong Alay competed against the UAAP at the Marikina Stadium in early 1980.”
“Lydia was 16 years old at that time and Lydia broke the Asian Games, Southeast Asian Games, Philippine record for the 400 meters and we were all [na]gulat and we realized that Lydia de Vega was a world-class athlete.”
De Vega was last seen in public in 2019 after serving as one of the country’s flag bearers during the Manila Southeast Asian Games’ opening ceremonies alongside fellow Philippine sports legends Akiko Thomson-Guevarra, Eric Buhain, Alvin Patrimonio, Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco, Olivia “Bong” Coo and Rafael “Paeng” Nepomuceno. – bny
