45. Master of the Fly: FREDDIE ELIZALDE, PH Olympian, Asian Games Medalist (active 1956-60)

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 sports—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.

 In the heats, Elizalde shattered the 2-week old league record of Robert Cullen in the 100 m. butterfly with his mark of 1:12.6 secs. This also erased Olympian Rene Amabuyok’s Philippine record established in 1952 at  1;14.8. In the championship round held on 29 Nov. 1956, Elizalde, pressed by Cullen of FEU, clipped 3.5 secs. off his prelims time, resetting the record to 1:09.1 secs. This feat was named as one of the Best Performances of the Year by the swim league.

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 3^rd, 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 1^st 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.

This served only as a prelude to the centerpiece spotting event of the year—the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo, staged from 24 May- 1 June. The Philippine swimming team came in full force, coached by Jose Obial, the 1936 Olympian.  

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 4^th place.

It was a different story for Elizalde in the 200 m. Butterfly finals, where he stopped the Japanese juggernaut by finally clinching the Bronze  with a time of 2:47.7 mins., behind the formidable Takashi Ishimoto (Gold, 2:21.4 mins.), and Koichi Hirakida (Silver, 2:24.2 mins.). As icing on the cake, the Philippine 4 x 100 m. Medley Relay team consisting of Rudy Agustin, Jacinto Cayco, Dakula Arabani, and Freddie Elizalde, snatched the Silver in 4:37.7 mins., behind Team Japan ( Keiji Hase, Maseru Furukawa, Takashi Ishimoto, Manobu Koga) who clocked an impressive 4:17.2 mins. for the Gold. Indonesia took home the Bronze medal.

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 (2^nd place) and Colgate’s Michael Wolk  and Yale’s Thomas Bissell who tied for 3^rd place.

By this time, the Games of the 17^th 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 15^th 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 31^st of 34) and 18 year old Amir Hussin Hamsain (clocked 2:27.9 mins, ranked 22^nd of 34).

 It was back to school for Freddie Elizalde after his one and only Olympics. In 2 more years, he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University with a degree of Bachelor of Arts Major in Social Relations.

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 28^th 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 1^st 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.

SOURCES:

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/

 “Harvard's Relay Team Lowers Eastern Free-Style Mark Twice; Brown of Dartmouth, Chase of Yale and Crimson's Elizalde and Gorman Also Excel”, The New York Times, 12 March 1960, p. 16, https://www.nytimes.com/1960/03/12/archives/harvards-relay-team-lowers-eastern-freestyle-mark-twice-brown-of.html

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/

39. Swimmer RENÉ AMABUYOK, 1948 Olympian, Asian Games Medalist, Swim Coach

One of the country’s finest post-war swimmers to emerge from the far South was RENÉ  TALITI AMABUYOK, born 10 July 1923, of Japanese-Filipino lineage, in Zamboanga City, Zamboanga. At the age of 10, he took up swimming, and became so proficient that he progressed to competitive swimming in his high school years at Zamboanga High School.

After his graduation, the young Rene moved to Manila and enrolled at Mapua Institute in 1939 to take up Physical Education. There, he honed his swimming skills as a member of the Mapua Swimming Team, helping win championship trophies for his school in many inter-collegiate meets.

When the Japanese-led global war reached the Pacific in 1941, Rene dropped out of Mapua and transferred to the National College of Physical Education (N.C.P.E.), a school founded in 1932 by the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (P.A.A.F.). There, he secured his certificate in Physical Education.

During all these years, Rene and his family kept a low profile being partly Japanese. When the defeat of Japan became imminent, the family Filipinized their surname of Koyubama, reversing the spelling to ‘Amabuyok’, to avert any possible ill feelings towards their Japanese link, even if they considered themselves as true and loyal Filipinos.

Sure enough, when the war came to a close and a sense normalcy began to settle in the country as re-building began in earnest, Rene Koyubama, now known as Rene Amabuyok, resumed his swimming career determined to represent the Philippines and raise its flag abroad. By this time, he was turning in incredible times in national meets, especially in the breaststroke, backstroke and the new butterfly events.

Though Amabuyok never dreamed he would someday be a great swimmer, his qualification to the lean 26-man Philippine Olympic team gave him an opportunity to prove his worth and stretch his potential. Amabuyok was just one of 3 swimmers sent to compete in London held at the end of July in 1948. UST’s Jacinto Cayco and Letran’s Sambiao Basanung completed the swim team.

Amabuyok was entered in only one event—the 200 meter breaststroke the same event at the 1928 Olympics where Teofilo Yldefonso made history by claiming Bronze, the 1^st Filipino Olympic medalist. To get to the finals, he had to hurdle the First Round of Heats that would determine the Semifinalists.

The First Round consisted of 5 Heats; the first 2 finishers of each heat—plus the 6 fastest losers get to advance to the Semifinals. Amabuyok swam in Heat 1 and landed 4^th with a time of 2: 52.6 minutes. When the Semifinalists’ names were called, Amabuyok was one of them.

The Semifinals Round saw Amabuyok grouped again with U.S. Robert Sohl, who had swum with him and who had topped the First Round Heat 1. Amabuyok bettered his time to 2: 51.8 mins,, placing 6^th among 8 swimmers.

In the Semifinals, the first 3 fastest, plus the 2 fastest losers will fight it out for the Finals. When all the times of the 2 semifinal heat swimmers were tallied, Amabuyok found himself in 11^th place, and was thus eliminated. Still, his 11^th place finish among 32 swimmers was a creditable accomplishment.  In the end, the 200 m. breaststroke finals became an all-American finish, with Joseph Verdure (1^st), Keith Carter (2^nd) and Robert Sohl (3^rd) as winners,

London would be his first and last Olympics. His next competition was at the Manila-Hongkong Interport Meet of 1949 which the Philippines topped. Then the inaugural 1^st  Asian Games opened in New Delhi, India in 1951. There, Amabuyok was entered in his favorite 200 m. breaststroke event and won a Silver Medal in 2:54.8 minutes behind his team mate Jacinto Cayco, who won Gold in 2:54.4, a new games record.  

In his sterling swimming career, Amabuyok also mastered the new butterfly stroke, which only became an independent event beginning in 1956 at the Melbourne Olympics. He held the 100 m. butterfly record (1:14.8 mins.)  for 7 years (1950-1956), until his student, , teen sensation Freddie Elizalde broke it at a 1956 High School Boys swim league with a time of 1:12.6 mins.

After his retirement, Amabuyok became a coach of the Indians Swim Teams of the American School in Manila, handling both the girls and boys varsity teams. He led the teams to several significant wins in meets like those mounted by the Manila Athletic Association for Secondary Schools.

At the 1958 National Intersecondary School Meet, the American School, paced by the aforementioned Freddie Elizalde, captured the Boys Division  championship title to put an end to FEU’s domination of the tournament.

In inter-department school presentation, Coach Amabuyok, with his fine singing voice (he moonlit as a professional singer), would join the swimming team in musical productions. Off-season would find him either swimming at the Rizal Memorial pool or taking care of his wife and 7 children, 5 girls and 2 boys. It is interesting to note that one of her daughters, Arene Cecilia “Pinky” Anas Amabuyok became the Philippine beauty delegate to the 1968 Miss World Contest in London. She placed 5^th , the first time a Filipino reached the finals of the oldest beauty pageant in the world.

Asked about the pronouncement of her daughter’s supposed wish to become a nun—news that generated buzz around the world—coach Amabuyok said he knew nothing about his daughter becoming a nun. “She’s just like any other girl,” he said.

Amabuyok remained as a much-loved coach of the American School—now known as International School based in Makati—until his retirement. From the 70s onwards, there has been no news, nor any details of his passing—but swimmer, coach and Olympian Rene Amabuyok will always be known as a multi-faceted athlete whose love for mentoring young swimmers knows no bounds.

 SOURCES:

1948 London Olympics Official Report, LA84 Digital Library, https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll8/id/5717/

Rene Amabuyok, Olympedia

Photo Credits: Pinky A. Santos FB Page : (Coach Amabuyok, with Indian Swim Team of American School/ Amabuyok with Trophy)/ Rodante Sacdalan FB Page: (Rep Men’s Swimming Team 1^st Asian Games, New Delhi, India/ American School articles: “R. Amabuyok, Swim Coach”; “Swimming Season Starts”/ Nostalgia Manila, “ Amabuyok,Baker Rizal Swim Meet 1952”