Sydney the athlete, not the city
SYDNEY the city hosted the Olympics in 2000, the same year that Sydney the athlete was born and her father named her after the famous Australian metropolis.
I refer to Sydney Tancontian, the 24 year old daughter of Paolo Tancontian, president of Sambo Philippines, a former national athlete himself before in judo, before he was convinced to shift to sambo, a sport, developed by Russians.
Sambo has been pretty impressive for us, a bronze in the 2018 World Sambo Championship by Sydney, two golds, one silver, two bronzes in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, another bronze in the 2020 World Championship in Serbia , again by Sydney, a gold in the 2022 Asian Sambo, and one gold, one silver, two bronzes in the 2022 Vietnam SEA Games but in kun bokator where our sambo athletes competed as sambo was not included among the events.
Together with her father and coach Ace Larida, Sydney dropped by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) for an interview, and the more I got to know the lady and her achievements in different related disciplines like judo, where she started, jiujitsu, kurash, wrestling, and sambo, garnering honors in her 14 years as an athlete, eight years as a national athlete, her personality and passion, the more i am impressed.
But outside of sports, what I like most about her is the fact that she has already completed her college education requIrements and will graduate from UST this year with a degree in sports fitness and management.
That she had to stop competing for 9 months just work on those requirements makes it even more impressive.
It was a natural progression for her and her younger sibling Chino in sports I guess, not just because their father was an athlete.
Paolo mentioned that an uncle of his, Romy Tancontian, was the first provincial judo champion to become a national judo champion in 1967.
Sydney decided to focus on sambo saying it works to her advantage that the sport is more free wheeling with less restrictions compared to other martial arts, easier for her to develop new techniques that have enabled her to win bronze, silver, and gold medals.
Ahe had a gold in the Asian Sambo Championship in 2022 and last year won also a gold in the Korean Open, a silver and a bronze in kurash in the 2022 and 2019 SEA Games respectively, another silver in the 2022 FISU World Combat Sport Games, and a bronze as a junior athlete in the 2019 Sambo World Cup, the World Sambo Championship, not to mention dominating the UAAP.
Paolo says her daughter is in peak condition now with her competition experience and skills level and both of them believe that the world championship on November this year is within grasp.
That achievement for Sydney will be the culmination of her athletic career if she does win the gold in 2024, if not, she says she still has 3 to 4 years to reach her goal.
A practical woman, she wants to retire as a winner and not be forced into retirement way past her peak , after all she can look forward to another career like coaching or as a sports official, she is already actually an assistant coach with the national team, or in an administrative role but still within the world of sports.
The fact that she has just been elected a member of her International Federation’s Athletes’ Commission to serve for 4 years will definitely open more doors and opportunities for Sydney.
Good luck in her quest for more golds and who knows, maybe before the year ends, I will be sitting down with her again and talking about how she became a world champion.
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