ACHIEVEMENTS

Born on September 3, 1905, Simeon Toribio was an elite high-jumper from Zamboanga City, and was considered by many as one of the country’s first Olympic heroes.

Toribio developed a love for sports when he had gone to visit with his school physician and was advised to take up athletics to strengthen his body which was prone to tuberculosis.

In his prime, he represented the country in notable editions of the Olympics in 1928, 1932 and 1936. At the 1928 Summer Olympics, he finished 4th out of 35 contenders. After his defeat in his Olympic debut, Toribio bounced back at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, as he sailed over 1.97m in the men’s high jump event giving the country its third bronze medal in the Games.

After this success, Toribio was selected as the Team Philippines’ flag bearer at the opening ceremony in Berlin in 1936.

The Olympics was not his first rodeo in the international scene. He reigned the High Jump events at the Far Eastern Games (FEG), the predecessor in today’s Asian Games. He won the gold medal three consecutive times in the 1927, 1930, and 1934 FEG editions.

In 1930, he was awarded the title “Asia’s Greatest Athlete” and was later recognized by the Philippine Sportswriters Association as the “Filipino Field Athlete of Half Century”, in recognition of his sports contributions.

And in the name of service for flag and country, Toribio also fought during the War, where he had a close encounter with the Japanese Military Police, which he fortunately escaped when the arresting officer saw one of his souvenirs from a competition he joined in Japan.