Bong Coo
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Olivia "Bong" Coo (born June 3, 1948) is a Filipino bowler - 4-time World Champion, won the most gold medals in the Asian Games by a Filipino athlete with five, and the first Filipino athlete listed in the Guinness Book of Records.
She is the only bowling athlete who has won the All Events titles in regional level, Asian zone level and world level championships in major quadrennial and biennial bowling competitions as well as owned the All Events records on those tournaments at one time in 1986.
- Quadrennial World Championships (Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs), consecutive in 1979 and 1983
- Quadrennial Asian Games, consecutive in 1978 and 1986
- Biennial Zone Championships (Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs), 14 years apart 1972 and 1986
- Biennial South East Asian Games, consecutive in 1981 and 1983
Bong Coo also won the World Cup (1979), Asian Games Singles and Masters (1978), the Zone Championships Masters (twice, 20 years apart 1972 and 1992), the Zone Championships Singles (twice 1978 and 1984) and the South East Asian Games Masters (1981).
She has the most gold medals won in the Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs Zone Championships with 14 in 12 consecutive tournament participation and was the first enshrined in the International Bowling Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Missouri in 1993. Her Zone Masters titles were acknowledged by the World Bowling Writers Hall of Fame Committee equivalent to world medals.
She amassed 77 medals in regional and world events where she competed as a member of the Philippine national squad, (broken down to 37 gold, 23 silver and 17 bronze) making her the most bemedalled Filipino athlete of all time. Bong Coo also has a total of 107 individual championships and has won at least one Masters title for 28 consecutive years. She won her 107th title at the Hiroshima Japan Cup Amateur Masters Championships in 1997, six months short of her 50th birth anniversary. She was voted one of the Philippines Athlete of the Millennium in 2000.
Fully retired from active competition, she now teaches (bowling as part of the curriculum) at the University of the Philippines under the Department of Human Kinetics and Colegio de San Juan de Letran and was awarded an Achievement Diploma by the International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch in 2000 in recognition of her outstanding contribution in promoting the development and participation of women and girls in sports.
