FORMER Asian sprint legend Lydia de Vega, who has been battling breast cancer for the last four years, passed away before midnight last Wednesday. She was 57.
“On behalf of our family, it is with absolute grief that I announce the death of my mother, Lydia de Vega, this evening August 10, 202 at the Makati Medical Center,” De Vega’s daughter, Stephanie Mercado de Koenigswater, posted on her Facebook page shortly after her mother’s demise.
“She fought the very good fight and is now at peace. Wake details will be announced very soon but for now, I would wholeheartedly appreciate your prayers for the soul of my mother. Maraming salamat po!” the daughter added.
“Hindi ko mapigil maging emosyonal dahil ‘yung pinagdaanan ko katulad ng kay Diay (De Vega’s nickname). Hindi rin ako makapigil sa kaiiyak ng malaman kong wala na siya,” long jumper Elma Muros-Posadas, like De Vega a multi-awarded athlete, said yesterday, hours after her friend’s passing.
“Si Diay pa nga ang nagdala sa akin sa Gintong Alay nu’ng batang-bata ako, mga 14 pa lang nuon,” Posadas recalled, referring to the athletic program founded in 1979 and headed by Michael Keon.
“We mourn an irreplaceable loss to the sporting community. I grieve as an athlete and friend. Lydia is my contemporary. Kasama ko siya, kapanahunan ko siya. It is such a big loss to Philippine sports. I was even counting on her to help me in my tasks as commissioner,” PSC Commissioner and bowling champion Olivia “Bong” Coo said.
Former Philippine Olympic Committee first vice president Joey Romasanta, who succeeded Keon as Gintong Alay executive director during the term of President Corazon Aquino, also paid tribute to De Vega, the back-to-back women’s 100-meter champion in the 1982 New Delhi and 1986 Seoul Asia Games.
“Our deepest sympathies and prayers for Lydia. Diay…I had a wondrously blessed opportunity to have worked with her during my Gintong Alay stint. She was at her prime and best then, unbeatable as Asia’s sprint queen and the fastest woman in Asia,” Romasanta said. “A true gem of a talent and athlete. May she rest in peace.”
Former athletics chief and PSC chairman Philip Ella Juico, who had prayed for the athlete’s healing and well-being, cited De Vega’s contributions to track and field and sports in general.
“I join the country, especially the athletics and track and field community, in mourning the death of Lydia ‘Diay’ de Vega. We stormed the heavens with our prayers. The Lord had other plans for Diay,” Juico said.
“Had Diay stayed a bit longer in this life, she would have continued to have been a role model and inspiration as an authentic Filipino athlete who genuinely loved sports for the good it could do and for what she could get out of it,” Juico said. “Diay joins many sports greats who fought the good fight and finished the race with their principles intact.”
Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski, International Olympic Committee Executive Board Member and the IOC representative to the Philippines, acknowledged that De Vega was her role model as an athlete.
“Lydia de Vega was one of my sporting heroes as a young girl. Her accomplishments made me proud to be a Filipina, and were a huge source of inspiration for me as a Filipina and a young athlete,” said Jaworski, a former national athlete and accomplished equestrienne, who won the gold medal in show jumping in the 2002 Busan Asian Games. “Her contributions to the country will never be forgotten. I pray for strength and comfort for the loved ones.”
In its official Facebook account, Far Eastern University noted that she was a former athletic standout of the school and was enshrined in the institution’s Sports Hall of Fame.
“Far Eastern University is saddened by the passing of Philippine athletics legend and FEU Sports Hall of Famer Lydia De Vega-Mercado. She is well-known as Asia’s Sprint Queen of the 1980s as she won multiple gold medals in the Asian Games and SEA Games for a decade,” the school said in a statement.
‘Ate Diay’ was part of the first batch of former Tamaraw athletes to be inducted into the FEU Sports Hall Fame in 2008. A beloved and highly-respected figure especially in the track and field circle, her legacy will remain an inspiration to all FEU athletes onwards,” the school said.
