Lydia de Vega to be honored in Philippine Sports Commission’s upcoming museum
Asia's sprint queen Lydia de Vega
In its soon-to-be-built museum in Capas, Tarlac, the Philippine Olympic Committee plans to permanently preserve the legacy of the late Lydia de Vega-Mercado.
The POC pledged to De Vega-mother Mercado’s Mary and daughter Stephanie Mercado-Koenigswarter that the track and field legend would be honored with a wall at the museum through the leadership of its president Bambol Tolentino.
Tolentino said to Mercado-Koenigswarter and Mary de Vega, “Lydia’s legacy will forever be recognized, thus we, the POC, are preparing to display all her achievements on a wall inside the Olympic museum.”
His added that de Vega’s “accomplishments at the Southeast Asian Games, Asian Championships, and Asian Games, among others, will be memorialized there in the museum. She will serve as an example for ambitious athletes.”
De Vega ruled track and field in the area during her peak, taking home back-to-back gold medals in the 100 meters at the Asian Games in New Delhi in 1982 and Seoul in 1986, two 100 and two 200 meter crowns at the Asian Championships in Singapore in 1983 and Kuwait in 1987, and nine SEA Games gold medals from 1983 to 198
De Vega’s funeral will be moved on Monday to her native Meycauyan in Bulacan, where she formerly held the position of councilor.
