PHILIPPINE Paralympic Committee president Mike Barredo paid tribute to table tennis player and Rio Paralympics bronze medalist Josephine Medina, who passed at home last Thursday at the age of 51.
“Ate Jo, as Medina was called, exemplified hard work and dedication to her sport that our national para athletes can follow and look up to as an inspiration,” Barredo said. “This is what made her an exceptional athlete and champion and enabled her to win a bronze medal for the country in Rio.”
Medina broke the country’s 16-year dry spell in the quadrennial global sports festival featuring the world’s best para athletes since Adeline Dumapong Ancheta garnered the first bronze in the Games in women’s powerlifting in 2000 in Sydney.
“Josephine is a hardworker and addicted to training, which is why she excelled in her sport,” noted para athletics coach Joel Deriada, who witnessed Medina clinched her bronze medal in Rio.
“Ate Jo is really diligent. We often spent long hours in training, our two-hour sessions extending to four hours in regular practice,” said coach Michael Dalumpines, who thanked the Philippines Sports Commission’s swift assistance to her family in Manila.
Despite her disability, Medina was good enough to be a member of the national women’s team in 1989, according to Dalumpines, a former national standout himself.
A graduate of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Medina was dominant on the Southeast Asian level, bagging four gold medals in the 2008 ASEAN Para Games in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
She also had a gold each in the 2014, 2015 and 2017 editions in Naypyidaw, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, respectively.
Medina brought home silvers in the 2010 Guangzhou and 2018 Jakarta Asian Para Games and a bronze medal in the 2014 Incheon edition.