SEA Games 2025: Filipino swimmer Kayla Sanchez aims to make a splash in and out of the pool
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Kayla Sanchez of the Philippines with her gold medal after the Filipino-Canadian won the SEA Games women's 100m freestyle event in Thailand on Dec 12.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
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- Kayla Sanchez, born in Singapore but raised in Canada, switched her sporting allegiance from representing Canada to the Philippines in 2023.
- At the SEA Games, Sanchez anchored the Philippines to a historic women's 4x100m freestyle win, ending Singapore's dominance, and secured multiple medals.
- Sanchez aims to inspire young Filipino swimmers and will continue her studies and training in Canada after the SEA Games.
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BANGKOK – In an alternate universe, Olympic medallist Kayla Sanchez would be blitzing the pool for Singapore instead of the Philippines at the ongoing SEA Games.
With a bright smile and a laugh, the 24-year-old SEA Games debutante told The Sunday Times: “My parents (Filipinos Noel Sanchez and Susana Pramoso) met in Malaysia, then they went to Singapore to work. So I was born there.
“But I was three years old when my parents moved to Canada, so I don’t remember much about Singapore, which I visited for the first time last year after the Paris Olympics.”
It was in Toronto where Sanchez grew up in a Tagalog-speaking family and learnt to swim, before she began competitive swimming at age eight, worked her way up the Ontario high-performance centre and joined the Canada national team at 16 in 2017.
The following year, the Filipino-Canadian set a world junior short-course record in the girls’ 100m freestyle with a time of 51.45sec at the Swim England Winter Championships.
At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, she bagged a women’s 4x100m freestyle silver and 4x100m medley bronze, and also has a clutch of relay medals from the world championships in 2019 and 2022.
In 2023, she made waves by switching sporting nationality from Canada to the Philippines, paving the way for her to represent her adopted country at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Sanchez said: “After achieving those medals with Canada, it was a hard decision. I’ve always been really proud of my Filipino heritage. My parents are from the Philippines and they were talking about the SEA Games and me representing the Philippines.
“I had done my work for Canada, who introduced me to high-performance sport, and I wanted to bring that to the Philippines and inspire the young Filipino swimmers.”
While her outing in Paris was average by her high standards – she set a women’s 100m freestyle national record in 53.67sec in the heats and finished 15th in the semi-finals in 54.21sec, well short of her personal best of 53.12sec – she has been labelled a “game-changer” at the Thailand Games because of her pedigree.
Despite being literally miles away from world-class facilities and competing against rivals who were weaker than those she used to face in Canada, Sanchez has taken to the regional meet like, well, fish to water with her bubbly personality and even lost her voice from cheering on her new national teammates.
In her first SEA Games event on Dec 10, she anchored the Philippines to a historic women’s 4x100m freestyle gold
Registered for nine events, she followed up with a women’s 50m backstroke Games record of 28.47 in the heats striking gold again in the 100m freestyle on Dec 12
She will look to do more damage in the 50m freestyle and butterfly events, as well as the 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley relays to further dent the dominance of her country of birth.
After the Games, she will return to Canada to study at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where she aims to continue her resurgence following her seven-gold performance at the 2025 U Sports Championships that landed her the Top Athlete title and helped UBC clinch the national team championships.
Outside the pool, Sanchez also wants to make her mark in the Filipino community. After the Paris Olympics, she conducted a three-day training camp for young athletes at the New Clark City Aquatic Centre in August 2024.
She said: “That was special because it was held in Pampanga where my dad is from. It’s surreal because I was once in their place, being an age-group swimmer not so long ago. Back then, I wanted to go to the Olympics and now, I can inspire these kids to qualify for the next Olympics.
“I feel a lot of honour. I want to be a good role model, and I want to show kids that anything is possible, and they should try to achieve their dreams.”
