JESSIE KHING Lacuna may seem like a typical freshman athlete. He can often be seen walking around campus in a shirt-and-board shorts combo. He seems confident, yet reserved and humble. However, masked by his laidback personality is the ferocious swimmer he really is once he’s in a pool.

On his inner right bicep is a tattoo of five interlocking rings, a mark that only a chosen few have a right to bear. Clearly, he is much more than your average Atenean athlete. Lacuna is an Olympian.

Although he must sit out the games of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) this season to comply with residency rules, the Blue Tankers’ latest prized gem is set to fulfill his new role as a student athlete of the Ateneo.

Born swimmer

Lacuna was born a swimmer. Hailing from Pulilan, Bulacan, his home was situated inside a resort. Even at three months old, he would be unafraid to get into the water. “My parents made me crawl from the house to the swimming pool with floaters,” he recalls.

With two older brothers already engaged in the sport, it was easy for him to follow in their footsteps. When he was eight, Lacuna had his first taste of national competitions at the second Batang Pinoy National championship. There he bagged gold in the 100-meter butterfly and silver in the 200-meter freestyle events.

He quickly rose in the national sports scene as a young and promising swim star after garnering numerous awards and medals in prestigious competitions. Some of these include the Philippine Olympic Festivals, Palarong Pambansa and the National Games.

In 2009, he represented the Philippines in the South East Asian (SEA) Games held in Laos, where he won silver as part of the 4×200-meter freestyle relay team. In the following SEA games, held in Indonesia in 2011, he won silver in the 200-meter freestyle event and bronze in both the 4×100-meter and 4×200-meter freestyle relays.

In the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, Lacuna was named the “fastest Filipino swimmer” after completing the 200-meter freestyle event in just one minute and 50.90 seconds. He broke the record of national athlete Miguel Molina, who held a time of 1:51.75 at the 2007 SEA Games.

Competition and accolades aside, Lacuna shares that it is the experience and friendships he makes in these international competitions that he values the most. “You gain more knowledge from the people you meet in the swimming community,” he says. “[There is] the fellowship you form with the people you meet even though you all come from different countries,” he adds in a mix of English and Filipino.

The 2012 London Olympics

Naturally, none of those international competitions quite compare to his experience at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

He recalls the moment he found out he was going to participate. “I was shocked—[it was] unbelievable. [My dream] was coming true,” he says.

At 18, Lacuna was the Philippines’ youngest delegate. He was set to compete in the 200-meter freestyle event, freestyle being his strongest stroke. He describes the unforgettable moment when he stood on the diving block with about 25,000 people watching him on the world’s biggest show. “[It was] unbelievable and [I was] so honored to represent the Philippines,” he says.

Although he was unable to advance to final round, Lacuna still believes that his Olympic journey is the most significant learning experience that he has to date. “You can’t get [the win] at once. It has to be one step at a time,” he says.

The Blue Tanker

Coach Archie Lim, the head coach and program director of the Ateneo swimming team, first tried to recruit Lacuna two years ago, when he had just graduated from high school. However, Lacuna initially declined Lim’s proposal. “[At the time] I was not sure where I wanted to go,” he recalls.

But once he had finished with the Olympics, Lacuna decided that he needed to go back to studying. He wanted to be different from his two older brothers, who are currently studying at the University of Santo Tomas, so he was deciding between the Ateneo and the University of the Philippines, with the Ateneo ultimately winning out.

Lacuna was welcomed into the Ateneo team with open arms. “The team is very lucky to have him as swimmer because, generally, Jessie is very strong, as shown by his participation in different competitions, including the Olympics,” says Blue Tankers Team Captain Islau Dapat. “It really gives the team a stronger morale and definitely a stronger lineup. It also inspires the team to become better and have the same discipline that he has.”

“[Lacuna is] a winner. In Barcelona, he said that he was not [as] ready as he wants to be, yet he performed really well,” says Coach Lim, referring to Lacuna’s performance in his most recent competition, the Fédération Internationale de Natation World Championships in Spain. “He is a winner and he is very competitive. He does not want to lose.”

Lim, however, does not let Lacuna forget his responsibilities as a student athlete. “When he got in [Ateneo], my only condition for him was to study well because I know that in swimming, I won’t have a problem with him,” he says.

However, this does not seem to be an issue for Lacuna. When swimming isn’t occupying his time, he advances his school readings in order to catch up with what he missed while he was away for international competitions. “Sometimes I don’t get to go out with my friends because I only have two worlds—swimming and school,” he says in a mix of English and Filipino.

Inspiring others

Swimming has molded Lacuna into a mature and wise character with a drive to continuously inspire others. A go-getter, he constantly makes new goals for himself that can only be achieved if he sticks to what he has to do. “Even though I want to quit already, that disappears when I start swimming. You have to finish [what you started] in order to reach your goal,” he shares.

He adds that the most important lesson he has learned from his athletic career is patience. “There were so many times that it was so hard that I wanted to quit, stop and give up,” he says. “Then I say to myself, ‘Wait, I haven’t reached my goal yet, just wait. Even though all your times are bad this year, even though you’ve already peaked before, just wait.’”

A year will pass quickly and soon enough, Lacuna will be able to join his teammates in the water for the UAAP. Until then, the Ateneo’s new resident Olympian will strive to find his balance between school and the sport he loves.