Haydée Coloso-Espino

Haydee Coloso-Espino

Personal information
National team	Philippines
Born	(1937-08-28) 28 August 1937 Dueñas, Iloilo, Philippines Commonwealth
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle, Butterfly
Medal record Women's Swimming Representing the Philippines Asian Games 1954 Manila 100 m freestyle 1954 Manila 100 m butterfly 1958 Tokyo 4 × 100 m medley relay 1954 Manila 4 × 100 m freestyle relay 1958 Tokyo 100 m freestyle 1958 Tokyo 200 m freestyle 1958 Tokyo 4 × 100 m freestyle relay 1962 Jakarta 4 × 100 m freestyle relay 1962 Jakarta 100 m freestyle 1962 Jakarta 4 × 100 m medley relay

Haydee Coloso-Espino (born 28 August 1937) is a retired Filipino swimmer who is considered as her nation's greatest female swimmer of all-time. She also competed at the Rome 1960 Summer Olympics.

Career

Dubbed as “Asia's Swim Queen" in the 1950s, Espino holds the record for most number of medals won by a Filipino athlete - male or female - in the Asian Games.

The Ilongga swimmer won a total of ten medals from the 1954 Asian Games, 1958 Asian Games and 1962 Asian Games. Of those medals, three were gold, five were silver, and two were bronze. Her gold medals came from the 100-meter freestyle and butterfly events.

Coloso-Espino was just 16 years old when she won two gold medals and a silver medal at the 1954 Asian Games in Manila. She came from behind to beat Japanese swimmers Tomiko Atarashi and Shizue Miyabe in the 100m freestyle final at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex pool. She also led the hosts to a sweep of the 100m butterfly with Norma Yldefonso and Sandra von Giese taking the silver and bronze medals, respectively. In the 4 x 100m freestyle relay, she teamed up with von Giese, Gertrudes Vito and Nimfa Lim to win the silver medal behind Japan.

Following her outstanding performance at the 1954 Asiad, Coloso-Espino was a shoo-in to make the national team to the 1956 Summer Olympics. However, she became pregnant before the meet and had to take a time off from competitive swimming.

She was chosen as Woman Swimmer of the Year for three consecutive years (1953, 1954 and 1955) by the Philippine Sportswriters Association.

After her stint at the 1962 Asian Games, Coloso-Espino retired from competitive swimming and became an educator. She briefly resided overseas but returned to her ancestral house in Iloilo to raise her seven children. She taught at the Far Eastern University, Lyceum of the Philippines and Araullo High School. She retired from teaching in 1993.

On January 16, 2020 she was admitted at the Medicus Medical Center in Iloilo due to chronic respiratory infection.

Legacy

Coloso-Espino and fellow swimmer Jocelyn von Giese were the first Filipina athletes to win gold medals in the Asian Games. She is just one of three Pinays to win at least three gold medals in the quadrennial multi-sport meet along with athletics star Mona Sulaiman and bowler Bong Coo. In 2016, Coloso-Espino was inducted into the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame as part of the second batch of inductees. She is the first and (so far) only Filipina swimmer to earn the accolade.