“YOU are my champion!” This line ended the keynote speech of global Filipino athlete Olivia Bong Coo during the Filipino Nurses Global Summit VI organized by the Philippine Nurses Association of America (PNAA), with the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) and the Association of Deans of Philippine Colleges of Nursing (ADPCN). The event gathered hundreds of Filipino nurses from all over the world in the ballroom of the Conrad Hotel on Jan. 22–23, 2026.
Introduced by a childhood classmate, nursing leader May Mayor, Bong Coo presented a heartwarming regard for the nurses, in perspectives that rightfully recognize what these Filipino nurses have envisioned to be — the best for the Filipinos, the choice of the world.
The athlete that made the country proud
Olivia “Bong” Coo is a retired Filipino National Team athlete who began her career in 1970 and formally retired in 2000. Within her three decades of professional athletic career, she represented the country in the Southeast Asian Games, the Asian Championship, Asian Games, the World Championships, the AMF World Cup and international Masters events.
Across those years, she earned 79 international medals, 39 of them gold, and captured 137 championship titles against elite athletes. She was honored to set two Guinness World Records for All Events titles at the World Championship — as there were no records achieved in a single season or tournament, but across a sustained competition.
She was called to serve — as a commissioner of Philippine Sports. She called it a life’s call for full circle — returning to where duty called and serving the community that once carried her.
Discipline and dedication equals reward and recognition
This is the principle that guided her through three decades of ups and downs as a person and athlete. This is the principle that deepened to become her personal ethos, governing her not only in sports but in life.
She emphasized duty over desire, obligation over ambition. This became the rhythm of how she trained, how she competed, how she endured loss and how she accepted responsibility.
She cited that competitions she trained for were not annual events and preparation stretched across long cycles, often with only one chance to perform.
There were no shortcuts. One couldn’t miss one cycle as it would entail waiting for years again. Such demand consistency under fatigue, disciplines along formats and the ability to recover, refocus and perform again and again and again.
Durability is not speed
To her, durability is not power. It is showing up again and again when the body is tired, when injuries accumulate, when motivation must be renewed.
This she relates to nursing as nurses’ durability deepens with time. Nursing is not about a heroic shift but about returning the next day, and the next day and the next month, the next year and the next decade with the same level of care.
Sacrifice that
are rarely visible
She cited that as an athlete, long preparations meant repeated time away from home in training camps, and competitions that pulled her away from her children and family in short but frequent spurts. She acknowledges that such temporary separations carry costs.
She relates this to many nurses who live with this reality in a far greater way. Nurses do not leave home for weeks but for days — missing occasions and holidays that never return. But because of the call of duty, because patients depend on nurses, and because service requires distance, the sacrifice of nurses is rarely visible but deeply felt.
Nurses at the
center of service
As an athlete, she knew the importance of health — even in the 1970s when sports medicine and mental health were not yet widely embraced. She made a deliberate decision to work closely with medical professionals, as she understood early that excellence is never achieved alone.
She had a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist, Dr. Tyrone Reyes, and psychiatrist Dr. Leonardo Bascara. Both doctors she trusted to recover from injuries that she sustained in training that she could afford to carry into the competition. And she noted that nurses were all there living the daily reality of guiding present through discomfort toward function.
Her mental preparation was equally critical where guided sessions trained her focus, certainty and control. Her mind is trained to observe pressure without judgment and to remain present under stress.
She cites that nurses practice such discipline every day — keeping themselves steady, assessing quickly and acting with clarity even when pressure rises.
Longevity built over time
Despite achievements, the physical cost was real. As times pass for an athlete like her, sports change and equipment evolved, as younger competitors arrive with different advantages, what sustained her was judgment, restraints and the ability to listen to her body and to medical guidance.
To her, longevity is not accidental but built over time.
The path of leadership
As she received honors and commemorations, she accepted leadership duties not as personal milestones but as a reminder of responsibility to serve others.
She mirrors this as the path of nursing leadership where years of bedside experiences grow into mentorship, policy influence and stewardship, not as departure to care, but a broader way of protecting it.
At the Philippine Sports Commission, through the Medical and Scientific Athlete Service, she notes that nurses are at the center of the service — guiding nutrition, hydration, psychological support, proper warm-ups, and first responders and constant companions in recovery.
On measuring champions
While she acknowledges that many are measuring success in medals and championships, she warns that numbers don’t tell the full story. She cited integrity that allows achievement to endure, the discipline to serve quietly and the values that remain long after competition ends.
Her rhythm of discipline, repetition, reflection and renewal is the same rhythm she sees in nursing. It is not the applause but the service.
As an athlete, she trained and competed, and did not choose to win the crown that did not last. But a crown that lasts forever.
In nursing, she relates, that such a crown is lived — every life protected, every patient comforted and every duty fulfilled with faithfulness.
The bemedaled Filipino athlete who made the Philippines proud, ended by thanking Filipino nurses for their sacrifice — away from home and for the care that sustains long after the spotlight fades. And cheered: “Kayo ang champion ko (You are my champion).”
The PNAA Foundation will also honor the Ten Outstanding Global Filipino Nurses 2026, along with Marife Aczon Amstrong (USE), Paul Reinald Base-Gracia (KSA), Jennifer Caguioa (UK), Freida Chavez (Canada), Marvin Delfin (USA), Micheal Joseph Dino (Philippines), Violeta Lopez (Australia), Zyrene Marsh (USA), Rhigel Tan (USA) and Dr. Carl E. Balita (Philippines).
The PNAA is headed by Dr. Marlon Garzo Saria, the PNA is led by immediate past president Grace Belo, and ADPCN under the leadership of Dr. Shiela Bonito. Special recognition to the PNAA Foundation president Mindy Ofiana, Nancy Hoff, PNAA leaders Peter-Reuben Calixto and Dino Doliente III, and all the nursing leaders from all over the world. The Board of Nursing is headed in the conference by its chairman Dr. Leah Samaco-Paquiz. The PNA is in full force with its new president Dr. Gian Carlo Torres.
