Marking milestones after milestones, five-time World Sambo bronze medalist Sydney Sy-Tancontian embodies what it means to be playing wholeheartedly for your country. She celebrates every victory and goes on to train for the next one, one would think she lives for it. It’s no wonder why she excels in sports, especially in sambo, since the Tancontians are a household name in the sport. But it wasn’t always sambo for the family. It was judo that propelled the family to the flashy world of sports.

It started from Antonio Tancontian who introduced judo in Davao City decades ago, which his son, Paolo Tancontian, now president of the Pilipinas Sambo Federation, Inc, excelled at. At seven years old, the young Paolo started training in judo, eventually, his training led to him being a National Junior Champion of Judo. This proved a milestone for him as he was named as the youngest judoka in the country to receive a black belt at 17 years old. 

With this achievement, he had the opportunity to be part of the national judo team and continued on for nine consecutive years where he won multiple medals from different international competitions.

With a rich background in martial arts, Paolo saw the growing potential of sambo since it was similar to his practiced sport judo. Paolo Tancontian founded Pilipinas Sambo Federation, Inc. (PSFI) in October 2015. Now, sambo wasn’t not a new sport then perse, but it was still considered as an unknown sport since it is not widely known in the country and there has not been an official local organization for the sport.

By 2018, the PSFI was officially recognized by the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) as the local organizing body for sambo. This opened doors for the athletes who wanted to make the national team through combat sports. Paolo did not miss to include his own children. He thought of having his kids try out sports as a form of leisure instead of having them in front of screens or visiting the mall.

And he was right to do so. Both Sydney and Chino Sy-Tancontian possessed natural talents in sports. For more than a decade of being athletes, both Tancontian kids have tried their hand at judo, wrestling, kurash, jiu jitsu, and their famed pet sport – sambo, and they have exceeded expectations.

Like their father, both Sydney and Chino started their career in sports through judo and jiu jitsu. At eight years old, both had already started training and had already made their mark in the sport after ruling judo’s Kids’ Division in the local scene. At their young age, they had already made a name for themselves in locally-held competitions, most especially in Davao City. At one point, Sydney was awarded with a City Sports Award in Judo by none other than then Mayor Sara Duterte and Vice Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

The local competitions were the first witnesses to the budding athleticism of the Tancontian kids. From 2011 to 2016, Sydney and Chino championed the Tancontian name in the Philippine Sports Commission’s (PSC) key grassroots sports programs – the Philippine National Games and the Batang Pinoy. In these early editions, they gathered 13 gold medals, 3 silvers, and 2 bronze medals in their events in wrestling, judo, jiu jitsu, kurash, and sambo.

Having possessed these distinct titles under the Tancontian kids’ names, they were eventually invited to be part of the national team. 

Chino Sy-Tancontian joined the national sambo team from the start. At 18 years old, the multi-sport athlete debuted in the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games hosted here in the country. He won the gold in the sambo 82kg, subduing Gary Chow of Singapore in the gold medal match. That was just the start for Chino as he went on to bag medals for the country from left and right.

His most recent medal would be his Senior Men’s +98kg gold from the 2024 Sambo Dutch Open Championships held in the Netherlands, Dalfsen. Someday, he hopes to bag a medal from the World Sambo Championships like his sister does every year.

Sydney Sy-Tancontian is on a whole other level, not just in the women’s division, but she is also a well-respected athlete in her generation. Many think Sydney would go on to lift the country to global recognition in the world of sambo.

Unlike Chino, Sydney debuted in the national team as a kurash athlete. Her first time playing for the country was at the 30th SEA Games held here in Manila where she secured the bronze finish, and she improved it at the 31st SEA Games after a silver medal, bowing to Myanmar’s Aye Aye Aung in Hanoi, Vietnam.

When she finally made the switch to the national sambo team, Sydney had already made an impressive track record after tallying bronze medals from multiple world sambo championships. In fact, she is the first Filipino and first Southeast Asian sambo athlete to win a medal at this level at the 2018 World Sambo Championships held in Bucharest, Romania.

And from there on, the medals kept coming. 

In 2019 alone, Sydney listed three more bronze medals from different world sambo championships – World Youth & Juniors Sambo Championship (Uzbekistan), Sambo World Cup Kharlampiev Memorial Competition (Moscow), and at the World Martial Arts Games (Chungju, South Korea).

After the four bronze wins, Sydney finally won her first-ever gold in a sambo competition. At the Asian Sambo Championships held in Jounieh, Lebanon last 2022, Sydney earned her hard-fought gold medal against Kazakhstan’s Arailym Abenova with a 5-0 lead. 

In an interview with the FIAS, Sydney mentioned that it had been a long and rigorous journey to the gold for her, “Of course, I am very happy, because in four years of SAMBO performances, all I managed to win were bronze medals at various tournaments. Therefore, today, having won gold for the first time, I feel a sense of satisfaction from the victory.”

Apart from her obvious expertise in the technicalities of the sport, she holds command and respect among her peers. Even in the eyes of her fellow athletes, she represents the qualities of a well-rounded sambist which is why at the age of 24, Sydney was voted by her peers as the chairperson of the FIAS (International Sambo Federation) Athletes’ Commission. 

“Bakit ako nagtatagal? Ineenjoy ko yung ginagawa ko kasi ‘yon naman ang pinaka-root bakit nandito pa rin ako sa sport na ito,” answered the 24-year old sambist when asked how she maintains balance between duties as chairperson of the FIAS Athletes’ Commission as well as an athlete.

Both Sydney and Chino found the sport which accelerated them to global recognition, and they are not stopping yet.

This November, the national sambo team will be facing yet again another challenge at the World Sambo Championships in Kazakhstan. With a newly-found sense of accomplishment from her bronze debut at the World Beach Sambo Championships, Sydney will once again tread a path towards the elusive gold medal at the World Sambo Championships. Will we finally clinch the gold finish at the Worlds?