It was only in 1956 that the Butterfly stroke made its debut in the Olympics inaugural Men’s 200 m. butterfly, won by American William Yorzik. A rising teen swimmer from the American School in Manila decided to specialize in this difficult stroke, coached by the Olympian Rene Amabuyok, himself, a former national record holder of the fly.
Soon, FEDERICO “Freddie” ELIZALDE, was re-setting meet and national records in the said events, establishing himself as the country’s top fly swimmer by the time he was 18. He would achieve more when he pursued his collegiate studies at Harvard University, where he became a topnotch varsity swimmer under the tutelage of more experienced, international coaches.
After all, the young Freddie came from a privileged and influential background. The son of the business tycoon and Philippine patron of sports, Spanish-Filipino Manolo Elizalde and Mary Cadwallader, Freddie was born in Makati on 17 Aug. 1940. The Elizaldes were very much into sport—Manolo and his brothers Mike, Juan Miguel, and Ángel were avid polo players. Another brother, Federico, was into shooting sports.
Freddie, however, took an interest in swimming. He was enrolled at the American School (the future International School) in Manila which had an excellent swimming program. The Indians Swimming Team, ably mentored by the 1948 Olympian Rene Amabuyok, were perennial winners in inter-secondary level swim meets.
In 1956, Freddie gained major attention at the Secondary
School Boys Swimming League held between Oct. 5-Dec.6. Fifteen teams from
various schools like Mapua, FEU, Sulu Trade School, and National University
were entered. The American School sent only 3 boys to the meet: Bobby Boni, R. Butler and
16 year old Freddie Elizalde.
At the next year’s 1957 National Secondary Boys Swimming Championship held from 21-23 Feb., Elizalde was untouchable in the 100 m. butterfly, winning the Gold in another record time of 1:08.8, a full 7 seconds ahead of Robert Cullen (FEU, 1:15.8) and T. Sahid (Sulu Trade School, 1:16.9).
There was no rest for Elizalde as 4 days later,
the 1957 National Open Swimming Championship went underway from 27 Feb. to
3 Mar. The Open drew a strong team from Australia who dominated the meet. Elizalde
however, held his own when he competed in the Butterfly Events. In the 100 m. Butterfly, he placed
second to Australian Brian Wilkenson (1:03. 5, a new All-Comers record),
timing in at 1:09.2 mins., followed by FEU’s Agapito Lozada in 1:11.2
mins. He, once more placed second to Wilkenson (2:31.9 mins) in the 200
m. Butterfly finals, with a time of 2:41.1 mins, with Lozada
in 3rd, at 2:49.0 mins.
1958 proved to be Elizalde’s busiest year, with the holding of the Men’s and Women’s Manila Open Swimming League, from 15 Jan.-13 Feb. He stamped his class in the 200 m. Butterfly event by breaking Parsons Nabiula’s time of 2:42.0 mins. flat, which the veteran set on 16 Feb. 1956—reducing the time to 2:41.2 mins.—a new Philippine record.
Hot on the heels of the Manila Open was the 1958 National Inter-collegiate, Inter-Secondary Swimming Championships held from 27 Feb.– 1 March. American School captured the overall inter-secondary swim championship in dramatic fashion, edging out the Sulu Trade School in the last event of the meet—the 4 x 100 m. Relay. Elizalde, swimming with team mates Bobby Boni., M. Macias, and R. Domingo won the Gold, on top of the 1st place finish of Elizalde’s in his pet 100 m. butterfly, won in 1:06.6—a new Meet Record. American School amassed 20 points to emerge as the overall winner, while Sulu Trade School had 18 pts. and Far Eastern University with 12 points.
Hardly had their swimsuits dried when the 1958 National Swimming and Diving Championships opened from 6-9 March. The American School swimmers, led by Elizalde, were called upon again to compete. As expected, both 100 m. and 200 m. Butterfly events were handily won by Elizalde (1:06.5 mins. and 2:40.4 mins., respectively). Walter Brown, an up-and-coming star from U.P., provided the only real threat to the country’s master butterflyer, finishing in second in both fly events.
Elizalde, without much surprise, qualified for the 100 m. Butterfly finals, along with team mate Walter Brown and a bunch of strong Japanese swimmers. In the end, however, it was Brown who snuck past Elizalde to win the Bronze Medal, in 1:06.9 mins. The Japanese scored a 1-2 finish with Takashi Ishimoto winning Gold (1:01.4 mins.) and Kumiagi Masunaga getting the Silver ( 1:02.0 mins.) Elizalde’s time of 1:07.4 mins, was good only for 4th place.
That same year, the newly-minted Asian Games double medalist announced his acceptance at the prestigious Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Three months after Tokyo, Freddie enplaned for the U.S. to begin his colleges studies. He easily made it as a varsity player of the Crimson Swim Team of the ivy league university, and the foreign student athlete quickly made quite an impression with his prowess in the pool.
His first major event was competing for Harvard in a dual meet with West Point held in December 1958. The freshmen Crimson team, of which Elizalde was a member, defeated the army men of West Point, 61-24. Elizalde was singled out for breaking the freshman record in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:23.9 mins---which also surpassed the winning varsity time.
Then on 11 March 1960, at the Eastern Colleges
Swimming Championships in the Harvard pool, Elizalde’s superb
performance was put on spotlight again. In the afternoon, the 19-year-old
sophomore set a pool record in the 200-yard butterfly event, then tied
the meet mark in the evening with a blistering time of 2:06.4 time. Yale's
Tim Jecko set the mark in 1958. Elizalde beat Jerome Bentley
of Dartmouth (2nd place) and Colgate’s Michael Wolk and Yale’s Thomas Bissell who tied for
3rd place.
By this time, the Games of the 17th Olympiad were all set for staging in Rome beginning on 25 August 1960. Elizalde was called upon to represent the Philippines in the world’s premiere sporting event. He immediately flew home to train with the rest of the Philippine Men’s Swimming team: Lorenzo Cortez, Antonio Saloso and Bana Sailani.
As luck would have it, Elizalde suffered a fractured hand before the Rome Olympics which almost kept him off the Philippine squad. It was decided that he would swim only in one individual and one team event so as not to add strain his healing hand. In the 100 m. freestyle, he finished 46 out of 51 swimmers with a slow time of 1:03.0 mins. He and his team mates did not much better in the 4x100 Medley Relay although he swam the butterfly leg faster than his 100 m. freestyle race, landing 15th among 18 teams, with a time of 4:28.0 mins.
Many believed that Elizalde could have earned a
finalist spot in the 200 m. butterfly race because he was already clocking in
at 2 mins, 20 secs. in his pre-Olympic swims. Replacing him were a pair of Muslim
teeners, Ahiron Radjae, 17 years old (clocked 2:39.80 mins, ranked 31st
of 34) and 18 year old Amir Hussin Hamsain (clocked 2:27.9 mins, ranked
22nd of 34).
He returned to the Philippines to help manage the giant Elizalde conglomerate of companies. He serves as the chairman of multiple corporations -- among them Manila Broadcasting Company, Star Parks Corporation, Philippine International Corporation (Philcite), Elizalde Holdings Corporation and Northern Capiz Agro-Industrial Development Corporation (Norcaic). He never left his love for swimming, supporting the sports by making special appearances in local swim meets, awarding winners, and meeting young swimmers.
In 1978, Elizalde entered politics by running as delegate to the 1978 elections for one of the 166 regional seats in the Interim Batasang Pambansa, under the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan. The interim national assembly was the legislature of the Philippines formed by Pres. Marcos, from its inauguration in 12 June to 5 June 1984. It served as a transitional legislative body as the country shifted from presidential to a semi-presidential form of government. First Lady and Humans Settlements Minister Imelda Marcos headed the party, which swept most of the seats.
Elizalde was married to Josine Pardo de Tavera Loinaz (b.1945/d. 2022), beauty queen and philantrophist, with whom he had 4 sons. His second wife was another beauty queen, Joan Gatlin Salas of Batangas, who passed away in May 1996, leaving Elizalde a widower with children Juan Manuel and Thalassa. On 7 June 1997, Elizalde married well-known ballet dancer, Lisa Macuja, and their union bore 2 children: Michelle Elizabeth and Manuel Cesar. The Elizaldes are celebrating their 28th wedding anniversary this year, 2025.
Of his children, it is son Federico Jr., 54, who has taken over his father’s mantle as a butterfly specialist of note, the same stroke that catapulted the senior Elizalde to swimming glory. Though Federico learned swimming early, he abandoned the sport at age 12, only returning to train at age 51. He has swum long distances in open water, using solely the butterfly style. Since becoming the first person to swim the 9 km. distance from Caticlan in Panay to Puka Shell Beach in Boracay, he has completed more endurance races employing the fly stroke. On 15 July 2023, Federico became the 1st ever swimmer to stroke his way from Lausanne, Switzerland to Evain, France by crossing Lake Geneva-- a distance of 13 kms—in 6 hours, 44 minutes. The event was sanctioned by Lake Geneva Swimming Association LGSA.
The Filipino Athlete, various issues;
Dec. 1956, J. Obial,
“Mapua Tech Swimmers Win Secondary School Boys Swim League, p.12-15.
June 1957, E.A. Perez de Tagle,
“UST Regains Nat’l Title; FEU Takes Women Division Championship, p.12-15.
April 1958, “UST; FEU:
American School Top Intercollegiate, Inter-Secondary Swim Meets”. P. 3-6.
Progress 1959 Magazine, Special Report
youtube, The Butterflier Effect. Federico Elizalde Makes a Record with a 3-Way Maricaban Strait Swim in Butterfly
Federico Elizalde Jr. https://www.geni.com/people/Federico-Elizalde/6000000016471151836
“Crimson Swim Team Crushes Army, 55-31 As Sophomores Star”, The Harvard Crimson,December 15, 1958, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1958/12/15/crimson-swim-team-crushes-army-55-31/
Agustin, Carl Martin. “Meet Federico Elizalde, the 53-year-old swimmer that’s setting records through butterfly strokes”, Lifestyle.INQ. https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/474200/meet-federico-elizalde-the-53-year-old-open-water-long-distance-swimmer-thats-setting-records-through-butterfly-stroke/
Enriquez, Marge. “The
‘miracle child’–one of the country’s richest heiresses—finds her life
partner’”. Lifesyle.INQ. 20 May 2012. https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/48783/the-miracle-child%E2%80%93one-of-the-countrys-richest-heiresses%E2%80%94finds-her-life-partner/
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