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Sheila Mae Perez represented the Philippines again at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.This was her third time to qualify in the Olympics.

The young lady from Davao City was described by Reuters as “one of the best divers in the Southeast Asia”. Born on December 10,1985,Sheila Mae grew up in a poor family that she had to dive from cargo ships retrieving scrap metals just to help her family make ends meet .This admirable lady diver holds the record for being the First Triple-Gold Medalist at the Southeast Asian Games (2003 and 2005). She won two gold medals in the 2003 SEA Games and three gold medals at the 2005 SEA Games in the 3-metre springboard, synchronised 3-metre springboard and 1-metre springboard events.

Her achievements bespeaks of her being a competitive athlete. She represented her country at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney where she finished 32nd out of 56.This was her debut as an Olympic athlete. She qualified in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, but was reportedly unable to compete. A gold and a silver medals in the 2007 Southeast Asian Games were won by her but then she did not compete in the synchronised event due to her partner,Cecile Dominios having retired.

Mark Javier, the 27-year-old archer is from Dumaguete City, Philippines. He competed in archery in various Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) and national competitions in the Philippines in the the past . He won the gold medal in the team event of the 23rd SEA games in Subic Bay, Olongapo, Philippines in 2005 and a bronze medal in the 24th SEA games in Nakhoratchasima Province, Thailand in 2007.He was a national champion and a gold medalist in the first Philippine Olympic Festival in 2006. He qualified to be in the Beijing Olympic after he won first in the Asian Continental competition in Xian, China.International recognition for the Philippines were brought by the young archer. Among his achievements were winning the gold medal in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games, ranking ninth in the 15th Asian Games and landing sixth in the 2006 World Cup.

Before the Beijing Olympics started in August, he trained everyday in Dumaguete under the tutelage of Jennifer Chan, a female Filipino great archer and a 2000 Sydney Olympian. While training under Jennifer Chan, Mark pushes himself to improve and develop his skill in the recurve event. He trained six days a week in Dumaguete. He lifted weights and jogged for strength. He said, “Competing in the Olympics has been my ultimate dream ever since I became an athlete.” Among the five of the archers for the Olympics, four of them were from Dumaguete.

But did you know that before he got fascinated with archery, he was shooting air guns?

His interest with air guns began when he was only a child as he watched his father shoot regularly. He was 14 years old when he joined his first air gun tournament and won third place. However when he enrolled at Silliman University, shooting wasn’t popular but archery was. So he decided to give up the gun for bow and arrow, and joined the Silliman University Dumaguete Archery Club. Later on he became a varsity archer…quite a great feat for a young man!