Chloe Isleta expressed optimism about the Philippine swim team’s future following their campaign at the SEA Games 2025 in Thailand.
BANGKOK — Before Kayla Sanchez, there was Chloe Isleta.
Months before Sanchez was even announced to have switched federations to the Philippines, Isleta had etched her name in the history books, when she won the Philippines’ first gold medal in women’s swimming at the 2022 SEA Games in Hanoi after 29 years of drought.
In 2019, James Deiparine delivered the only gold for the Philippines finishing first in the men's 100m breaststroke.
But in the Hanoi SEA Games, held in 2022 instead of 2021 due to the pandemic, the women started to shine.
Isleta, then 24, ruled the 200-meter backstroke to mark a milestone for the national team and her own career, after previously only winning silvers and bronzes in the biennial meet.
Later that year, Sanchez announced her move to compete for the Philippines after previously getting to the Olympics with Team Canada. While most of the attention has shifted to her teammate, Isleta undoubtedly played a big role in how things transpired.
With credit or not, Isleta is just happy to see the continuous growth of the team — which has manifested itself in multiple gold medals for the Philippine swim team in the 2025 edition of the tournament alone.
[READ: 'Golden girl' Kayla Sanchez swims way to another SEA Games 2025 victory in 100m backstroke]
“I feel like each year, the women team and the men's are getting faster and faster. And I just hope that, again, I told them too, I hope it inspires young Filipino athletes to also come try, work hard because your dream can become a reality to represent the Philippines,” Isleta told One Sports.
“So I'm very excited for the future of Filipino swimmers… even other teams are saying that we're crushing it.”
After six days of competition, the Philippine swim team raked in a haul of three golds, nine silvers, and two bronzes finishing fourth across six countries represented in the competition. This is the most successful performance for them in the past decade.
Eyes on You
All things considered, Isleta just hopes that what the team has been doing the past few years can help establish a more consistent pipeline of swim talents across the country.
“Definitely it starts with a dream. You know, of course, if your goal is to make it to the SEA Games, keep having that passion. If you want to watch, keep watching,” Isleta said.
“But then it starts with doing that commitment, practicing, also with your mindset, the people that support you,” she continued.
While Isleta and the team could definitely take the lion’s share of the credit of Philippine swimming’s growth, the 27-year-old knows that it takes each and everyone of the community to be able to build the vision that they have for the national team.
“And again, like we're swimming right now and you only see us on the screens. There's so many people that are supporting us and helping us. So it's not just us that are in the water, it's everyone else that's supporting us as well,” she said.
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Luisa Morales is a sports writer with a special interest in promoting women’s sports.
Her coverage highlights include the UAAP, PVL, Southeast Asian Games, and the FIBA World Cup. She also follows Alex Eala, the Philippine women’s national football team, and mixed martial arts.