Sanchez back where she last won Olympic medal
Kayla Sanchez described her return to Japan as a full-circle moment as she hopes to have a successful campaign representing the Philippines in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
“Different flag, same big dreams,” Sanchez wrote on her Instagram account.
Her second Asiad stint will come five years after she competed at the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a swimmer for Team Canada.
In that campaign, Sanchez claimed a silver and a bronze in the 4×100-meter freestyle and 4×100-meter medley, respectively, in her final Olympic stint for Canada.
She switched federations two years later.
Expectations are high that Sanchez can end the Philippines’ long wait for a swimming medal, especially after a productive run at previous year’s Thailand Southeast Asian Games.
Sanchez won three golds (4×100-meter freestyle relay, 100-meter freestyle and 100-meter backstroke) and five silvers to emerge as one of Team Philippines’ most bemedaled athletes.
The last time the country won a medal was in the 1998 Bangkok Asiad, when Ryan Papa claimed two bronzes in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke events.
Sanchez is set to compete in six events—the 100-meter backstroke, 100-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter medley, 4×200-meter freestyle, 50-meter backstroke and 50-meter freestyle.
Three years ago at the Hangzhou Asiad, Sanchez finished fifth in the women’s 100-meter freestyle.
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