Had Lydia de Vega been alive Monday, the former Asian Sprint Queen would have been celebrating her 58th birthday.
Or commemorating with mother Aleng Mary and her family the 22nd death anniversary of her father-coach Francisco “Tatang” de Vega, who, incidentally, passed away on December 26, 2010, the very day Diay, as Lydia was fondly called, saw the light on December 26, 1964.
And because Diay died four months ago on August 10 because of breast cancer, no birthday celebration has been set and instead Aleng Mary, her other children and friends would gather at the Meycauayan Memorial Park in Meycauayan City to visit the graves of Tatang and Diay, which lay side-by-side to each other.
The Tatang-Diay father-daughter partnership was definitely the most successful in Philippine athletics history. But it, too, was one of the most controversial, lasting for 17 years from the time the younger De Vega was discovered during the Central Luzon Regional Athletic Association in 1970s on the way to the Palarong Pambansa.
Diay first made an impact at the Manila 1981 Southeast Asian Games with gold medal performances in the 200 and 400 meters surpassing the Asian Games record in the process and with no less than then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. awarding her the gold medals.
A year later in the Asian Games in New Delhi, she topped the 100 meters then four years after that in 1986 in Seoul, she duplicated the feat becoming the first woman athlete to rule the century back-to-back and earning the sobriquet “Asia’s Sprint Queen” and “Asia’s Fastest Woman.”
She became a two-time Olympian—1984 in Los Angeles and 1988 in Seoul.
On December 30, 2010, during the wake of Tatang, Diay was asked to describe her father as a coach in the presence of basketball’s “Living Legend” Robert “Sonny” Jaworski, who was in the family house at Barangay Calvario, to condole with his co-athlete and family.
“Very strict…..super strict. Super-duper, I tell you” she said in between sobs.
“All throughout my athletics life, from the time I started trying my luck as a runner when I was 12 until the time I retired 17 years later in 1995, I really felt how strict a disciplinarian Tatang was,” she said. “There were times when I blamed myself for choosing track and field as my vehicle to be able to study and as a way of life.”
“Pero in the end, noong ma-reap ko na ang fruits of all my sacrifices.., our sacrifices, mine and Tatang’s…I should say that by winning medals after medals and breaking Philippine, Southeast Asian Games and Asian Games records, nawala lahat ang paghihirap ko.
“Sa bandang huli, I would tell myself ‘tama pala si Tatang. ’Yung mga ginawa niya sa aking pagpapahirap to attain excellence, tama lahat.’ I was hailed, not only by our countrymen, but, likewise, by our neighbors in the region,”Diay said.
“I was even hailed, not only as Queen of Sprint, but also Darling of Asian Athletics. And when I retired, I told him and I told everybody with my head up high, whenever I was asked to speak in any gathering, kung wala si Tatang, walang Lydia de Vega na nakapaghatid ng karangalan sa bansa at sa pangalang Pilipino,” Diay stressed.
Indeed, in all her speaking engagements, Diay, mother of three to former husband Paolo, takes pride telling her audience how great a father Tatang was, not only to her but to all her five siblings. And how a great provider he was to Aleng Mary.
“To all those who witnessed how he brought me up as an athlete ay nagsabing malupit siya. Napakalupit,” Diay said. “Even I, at the height of my popularity and career, thought at times that he was cruel. Too cruel, in fact, considering that I am his daughter.”
“He controlled my life. Gusto niya sundin ko lahat ng sinasabi niya. Wala siyang mali sa ginagawa niya sa akin. Siyempre umiyak ako. There were times I felt I was dying. Each and every workout, I have to finish. Walang pahi-pahinga. Pag nagkamali, sasaktan, sasabihan ng masasama.”
“During training, di dapat makipagtawanan. Di dapat makipagkuwentuhan. Kailangan 100 percent naka-focus sa ensayo. Walang dapat isipin,” she said. “Kahit tapos na ang ensayo, bawal sa aking makipagusap sa lalaki. Kahit sa bahay di dapat tumanggap ng manliligaw. Bawal akong ligawan.”
“I felt so bad day in and day out while training. First, training is not easy. Sumusuka ako nang walang maisuka, nahihilo, nahihirapang huminga. Pero pagkatapos ng workout, masarap na rin ang pakiramdam in the thought that I have accomplished something in the day. I realized na ginagawa niya sa akin ’yun so I can keep my running skills, which, no doubt, I did,” she said.
While her life was full of sacrifices, Diay said, Tatang’s was, too.
“Magkasama kami maghapon. Studies in the morning, training in the afternoon until early evening. FEU [Far Eastern University, Rizal Memorial oval, bahay. ’Yun ang naging buhay naming dalawa sa loob ng 17-year career ko.”
“It’s like pinapalo natin ang anak natin hindi sa galit tayo sa kanila, but to get the best in them, di ba?” Pinupukpok natin ang alimango hindi dahil galit tayo dito, but para makuha ang masarap laman nito. Ganun ang naging reaction naming lahat ng magkakapatid sa mga ginagawang ka-istriktuhan ni Tatang,” Diay said.
“As a result, we all grew up as good citizens in the community. Wala sa aming nagloko. Ako, siyempre sumikat because I excelled in my chosen career. My brothers became good husbands and fathers and my sisters, good wives and mothers. All because Tatang made us toe the line. Sinunod naming lahat nang gusto niya,” Diay explained.
Behind his strictness or, as his critics perceived, cruelty, Diay defended Tatang as “very loving and protective.”
“’Yung pagmamahal niya sa amin, hindi makikita, pero maramdaman,” she said. Perhaps because Tatang was a former policeman, Diay said he was very protective.
When the then Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association top brass wanted her to shift to middle distance, Tatang vehemently refused to the extent that he was sent back to Manila from the Baguio City training camp, Diay recalled.
“Tatang argued that I was then too young to run the 800 meters and, much more, the 1,500 meters and 3,000 meters. Hanggang 400 meters lang daw ako at the most. I was asked to choose between pursuing my running career and Tatang, I chose him,” she said. “I followed him to Manila that led to my untimely and temporary retirement in the early 80s. Mahal pala niya ako, I told myself.”
Those brief moments did not stop the father-daughter tandem though from training. “Kahit walang karera at wala na ako sa national team, practice pa rin. Ganun pa rin. Bahay, school, track oval, uwi uli ng bahay.”
“One time, during a dull moment, the Philippines was invited to an athletics meet in Beijing. I was not on the team that left, but because the newspapers played up the news, then First Lady, Mrs. Imelda Marcos summoned Tatang and myself to Malacañang. Tinanong kung ready akong mag-compete. Nakakahiya daw sa China na wala sa team ang Filipino Asian Sprint Queen,” she remembered the First Lady telling her.
“Then she told both of us to fly to Beijing the next morning. From the airport, we went straight to the stadium, I ran the finals of the 100 meters without racing in the preliminaries and won. Chinese athletics officials told us I didn’t have to qualify into the finals as a diplomatic gesture” Diay recalled.
“And the rest was history. I was readmitted in the national team where I stayed for 12 more years, us, father and daughter, earning glories for the country.”
“Si Tatang wala naman talagang diploma na nagpapatunay na nagtapos siya ng kolehiyo. Ang dunong niya sa coaching ay matatawag na uido [ear for music] lamang. Pero ang disiplinang ipinairal niya sa akin sa training at hanggang sa kompetisyon ang naging dahilan kung bakit ako naging si Lydia de Vega,” she pointed out.
“I have said this many times before and I am saying this again, kung wala si Tatang, wala si Lydia de Vega,” she emphasized. “Meaning kung wala si Tatang, walang karangalan marahil na matatamo ang Pilipinas sa larangan ng track and field.”
“Ipinagmamalaki ko siya habang buhay ko…Tatang is the best track and field coach this country has ever had.”
Testimony to this, of course, were Diay’s records—two Asian Games gold medals, Asian and an equal number of Asian Amateur Athletics Association victories, Asian and Asian Continental records and no less than 20 Southeast Asian Games and ASEAN championships gold medals.
And now, Diay and Tatang could continue that golden partnership somewhere up there.