Bong Coo

Olivia "Bong" Coo (born June 3, 1948) is a Filipino sports administrator and retired professional bowler.

She is regarded as the most decorated Filipino athlete.

As a member of the Philippine national team, she has amassed a total of 78 medals won in regional and world competitions, 37 of which were gold medals.

She is a 4-time world champion and a World Bowling Hall of Fame and Philippine Sports Hall of Fame member.

She is also the first Filipino athlete to make it to the Guinness Book of World Records twice.

She has won a total of 137 championship titles with at least one Masters title for 28 consecutive years.

In February 2022, the Philippine Postal Corporation honored her on a stamp as part of the Outstanding Filipinos Living Legends series in honor of the agency's 75th anniversary of its inaugural stamp.

Coo married at 17 in 1965 and separated four years later with two sons.

Coo was a talented athlete in high school, playing volleyball and softball at St. Scholastica College, but she had never bowled before.

She began bowling casually at the age of 21 as a therapeutic sport following her separation.

In 1969, she was encouraged to try out for the team and was accepted, winning her first gold medal at the 1970 Asian Zone Championships in Singapore.

Coo visited Canada in the mid-1970s to see some relatives and stayed in Toronto for six months.

She would travel to New York to play match-play pot games against American male bowlers.

During this period, her match play skills were sharpened and inspired her to take up the sport more seriously and increased her zeal.

When she returned to the Philippines, she hired Madoka Amano, a Japanese coach, to help her train more effectively.

Two years later she won five gold medals out of six at the 1972 Asian Zone Championships in Malaysia.

Coo's ascent to the top continued at the Asian Games in 1978, where she won every gold medal but one.

Assemblyman Jose Puyat, who owns numerous bowling alleys, offered her $10,000 and a lifetime of free bowling.

Pablo Carlos, the team's manager and Toyota dealer, gave her a Corona as a gift.

President Ferdinand Marcos stated she could fly for free on Philippine Airlines for the rest of her life.

Since 1980, she has also had her own line of Bowling-themed clothing.

From 1981 to 1985, Bong Coo worked as the associate sports director for the Philippine National Bank, a government-owned bank at the time, when she began her career in sport administration.

This came after She received her 1981 civil service eligibility for professionals.

She took time off of work to train for the 1986 Asian Games From 1988 through 1999, she worked as a sports consultant for SM Prime Holdings Inc. and SM Bowling Centers, as well as a number of private companies and government agencies, including the office of the vice mayor Vicente Sotto III of Quezon City in 1987.

She joined the bowling capital equipment and consumer goods markets in the 1990s.

She was the first to offer full-service interior design, architecture, and equipment supply.

She helped build facilities in Cebu, Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, Quezon City, San Juan, Alabang, Batangas, and Manila, among other cities.

The cover article of the June 2001 issue of International Bowling Industry Magazine featured her entitled "Lady of All Trades".

She ran a bowling center after retiring from active competition, continued her apparel business, and has been a bowling instructor at the University of the Philippines under the Department of Human Kinetics at the University of the Philippines Diliman since 2001.

Her syllabus was approved by the Philippine Department of Education in 2001.

Coo served as secretary general for the Philippine Bowling Congress Inc. from 2004 to 2011 and the Philippine Bowling Federation Inc. from 2016 to 2022.

She has been president of the Philippine Bowling Federation since June 17, 2022.

Additionally, she has served as the Women in Sports Commission's chairperson for the Philippine Olympic Committee from February 2021.

Coo is currently a commissioner of the Philippine Sports Commission since July 2022 and Officer-in-Charge from August 15–31, 2022.

Coo is the first appointment of President Marcos in sports.

She briefly participated in seniors competitions where she won two Seniors Master Titles in 2008 at age 60 and in 2012 at 64.

Bong Coo is the most decorated Filipino athlete, regardless of gender, in any sport based on Republic Act No. 9064 known as Sports Benefits and Incentives Act of 2001.

She was named one of the "Greatest International Bowlers of All-Time" by the prestigious Bowlers Journal International in its November 2013 100-year anniversary issue and "Top 24 International Bowlers of All-Time" by the Bowlers Journal International edition in September 2004.

On July 20, 2022, President Bongbong Marcos appointed Coo to serve as a commissioner of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).

She then previously served as the Officer-in-Charge of PSC.