Sheila Mae Perez Profile

AGE: 22 years old

SPORT: Diving, 3-meter springboard

OLYMPIC EXPERIENCE: Two-time Olympian

MEDALS: Three-gold winner, 2005 Southeast Asian Games Gold winner, 2007 Southeast Asian Games

SHEILA MAE PEREZ has come a long way since her humble beginnings in Davao City.

“Everything has come as a surprise,” Perez said. “I really didn’t expect that I would come this far. I just hope that God will give me the strength to compete and win for our country.”

It’s a shame that diving, one of the sports most suitable to the Filipino’s physique, isn’t getting much publicity. Otherwise the country would have been made aware of the heights athletes like Perez have attained.

This is the second time Perez has made it on sports’ biggest stage. At 14 and with barely any competitive exposure in the international scene, she was the youngest RP team member and the youngest diver overall in the 2000 Olympics.

Eight years after and Perez’s recent feats have given her a more substantial distinction. She won three gold medals in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games. She won another in the next Games in 2007.

In the Manila SEA Games, she was one of a handful of Filipinos who secured multiple gold medals, winning the 3-meter springboard, synchronized 3-meter springboard and the 1-meter springboard.

In the FINA World Cup last February, Perez placed a lofty 17th out of some 100 competitors in the 3-meter springboard event, a finish that was enough to give her a second Olympic ticket.
“I was just 14 years old [during the Sydney Olympics],” Perez recalled. “And I promised myself that I will win an Olympic medal when I reach the peak of my career. I guess this is the perfect time for me to do it.”

If she does that, Perez’s story will be one of the most compelling feel-good stories in RP sports.
In a webcast interview that is shown on its web site, Reuters revealed that Perez used to dive from cargo ships to retrieve scrap metal.

Perez said her indigent background has been a prime motivating factor.

“Athletes who come from poverty are used to grinding work and physical sacrifice,” she shared in the interview. “We’re determined because this is our way to move up.”

“I think Sheila Mae’s story is proof of how sports can help people improve on their lives and fulfill their dreams,” Mark Joseph, president of the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association (PASA), said. “She is so committed to excel and she has a dignity about herself and that’s something that works to her advantage.”

“But through all her success, she has remained humble.”

“It will definitely be a tough field [in Beijing], but it is still anybody’s game,” said Perez who has trained in China and recently at the PASA facilities in Los Baños, Laguna.

“I am banking on my skills and the preparations I’ve made all throughout the year. I will just go out there and try to have fun.” When asked why he thought Perez and fellow diver Rexel Fabrega should be on the gold-medal radar despite stiff odds from China’s powerhouse squad, Joseph said anything can happen in their event.“The Chinese will be hard to beat but our goal is to crack the semis, which will have 12 names. Making the semifinals is our goal and if we can do that, well, anything goes.”