BOXERS Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam were named the official flagbearers of Team Philippines in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The announcement was made by Philippine Olympic Committee president Rep. Abraham Tolentino during an Olympic briefing at the Milky Way Restaurant in Makati City on Monday.
Petecio and Paalam earned the honor following their silver-medal performances in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. As the next highest-placed Filipino athletes in the Tokyo games, Petecio and Paalam earned the POC nod when they qualified in the Paris games.
Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz could have been the flagbearer, but the Zamboanga native failed to qualify in the 2024 Olympics.
Last March, Petecio claimed an Olympic berth following an impressive performance in the 1st World Qualification Tournament in Busto Arsizio, Italy.
Petecio won over Turkiye’s Esra Yildiz, 4-1, in the semifinals of the women’s 57kg category to earn a return trip to the Olympics.
Two weeks ago, Paalam toppled five opponents in a week’s span for his Olympic ticket—Greece’s Alexei Lagkazasvili (5-0), Turkmenistan’s Shukur Ovezov (5-0), Armenia’s Artur Bazeyan (4-1), the Dominican Republic’s Jose Feliz de los Santos (5-0) and finally India’s Sachin Siwach (5-0) in the 2024 Boxing 2nd World Qualification Tournament in Bangkok, Thailand, to make it to Paris.
The 23-year-old Paalam and the 32-year-old Petecio will be wearing a creation by renowned designer Francis Libiran during the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremonies.