Bong Coo

Bong Coo (born June 3, 1948) is a 4-time World Champion Filipino bowler. She is the most decorated Filipino athlete, regardless of gender, in any sport per Philippine Republic Act 9064 also known as "Athletes Incentives Act of 2001". 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 also the first Filipino athlete to make it to the Guinness Book of World Records. She has won a total of 137 championship titles with at least one Masters title for 28 consecutive years. 
Bong Coo is also 5-time Asian Games Gold Medalist and a 14-time Asian Championships Gold Medalist.
She became one of the first ever inductees when the International Bowling Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 1993. The other inductees were compatriot Paeng Nepomuceno and Sweden's Annete Hagre. The International Bowling Hall of Fame and Museum is located in Arlington, Texas.
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
She was inducted to the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame with fellow bowlers Paeng Nepomuceno and Lita Dela Rosa on November 22, 2018.
She was honored by the Philippine Sports Association (PSA) a Lifetime Achievement award on February 26, 2019,
 where she was a four time Athlete of the Year awardee, among its Athletes of the Millennium and a member of its Hall of Fame.
During opening ceremonies of 30th edition of South East Asian Games held in Manila in 2019, she was honored as one of the "Greatest of All Time" athlete flag bearers of the South East Asian Games Federation flag, with legendary sprinter Lydia de Vega, Swimmers Akiko Thompson and Eric Buhain, Basketball star Alvin Patrimonio, 
fellow champion bowler Paeng Nepomuceno, billiards great Efren "Bata"Reyes and Olympic silver medalist Onyok Velasco. 
At present, she is the Chairman of the Women in Sports Commission of the Philippine Olympic Committee (NOC of IOC) since February 2021. 
Career.
Asian Games.
The quadrennial Asian Games is the most prestigious and important Games next to the Olympic Games among Government of Asian countries.
Bong Coo owns the most number of Asian Games gold medals among all Filipino and Asian bowling Athletes, winning five gold medals in consecutive participations in 1979 and 1986, minus New Delhi in 1983 where bowling was excluded. In addition to her five gold medals, she won two silver and one bronze medals. 
Bong Coo achieved what experts believe to be a historic record by winning all the individual events at the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok Thailand, she won the Singles, topped the All-Events, and won the Masters..
After three decades, her total five gold medal record haul was equaled by Lee Na-young when she was part of the Korean 6-women Team Gold medal winner at Palembang, Jakarta in 2018. Lee Na--young won the Gold medals in Doubles, Trios, Masters and All Events at the 2014 Games. 
All Events Champion.
All Events is the combined scores in 4 events: Singles, Doubles, Trios and 5-Team Event. Events are held over consecutive days and played in varying lane conditions and pace totaling 24 games, and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. This category is regarded as the most prestigious medal in world bowling "(see WTBA World Tenpin Bowling Championships)". The international federation member of the International Olympic Committee, International Bowling Federation (IBF; known as the Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs (FIQ) between 1952 and April 2014) and World Bowling (WB) between 2014 and November 2020, recently changed the name of this medal event to "Most Valuable Athlete" MVA.
Bong Coo is the only bowling athlete who has won the All Events titles in bowling's quadrennial and biennial competitions such as the regional games, Zone championships and World Championships. She owned the All Events records on those tournaments at one time in 1986, consequently, she was named World Bowling Writers Female "World Bowler of the Year" that year.
Major All Events Titles and records
Other major individual and masters titles.
Bong Coo also won the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup (1979), quadrennial Asian Games Singles and Masters (1978), the biennial Asian Championships Masters (twice, 20 years apart 1972 and 1992), the biennial FIQ Zone Championships Singles (twice 1978 and 1984) and the biennial South East Asian Games Masters (1981).
Other World Championships Medals.
Bong Coo and Lita dela Rosa won the Doubles Gold and Trios Silver medal with Nellie Castillo at 1979 World Championships in Manila. Bong and Lita repeated the Silver medal with Arianne Cerdeña in the 1983 World Championships in Caracas, Venezuela.
Asian Championships.
Until 2020, international bowling is divided into three geographical Zones. America, European and Asia which includes Australia and the Western Pacific. International bowling now has five different geographical zones, adding Africa and Oceana where Australia and New Zealand now belongs.
Bong Coo won the most gold medals in the biennial Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs (FIQ) Zone Championships now known as the Asian Bowling Championships, with 14 gold medals in 12 consecutive tournament participation. Her Zone Masters titles were acknowledged by the World Bowling Writers Hall of Fame Committee equivalent to world medals. To this day she still holds the most gold medals won in the FIQ Zone Championships in one celebration with 5 gold medals in 6 events.
Southeast Asian Games.
The Southeast Asian Games (also known as the SEA Games), is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. It is supervised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Council of Asia..
The Philippines hosted the Southeast Asian Games for the first time in 1981. Bong Coo emerged as its most successful Filipino campaigner. She won six medals in six events, four of which were gold medals where she set six individual game records. Bong won the gold in Ladies Doubles with Lita de la Rosa and averaged 221 in Trios en route to an Individual All Events gold medal and became the South East Asian Games Masters champion.
Other Awards.
In 2000, Bong Coo was voted one of the Philippines Athlete of the Millennium and was awarded an Achievement Diploma by the International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch in recognition of her outstanding contribution in promoting the development and participation of women and girls in sports, she was 17-years earlier awarded the Philippine Olympic Medal of Honor. She was also named one of the Ten Outstanding Women for the Nations Service (TOWNS) in 1986. The TOWNS award is conferred every three years by the TOWNS Foundation on Filipino women who have rendered outstanding service to the nation.
Retirement.
Retired from active competition, she teaches Sport Bowling Physical Education 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.
She briefly participated in seniors competitions where she won two Seniors Master Titles in 2008 at age 60 and in 2012 at 64.
A major bowing ball manufacturer released the MVP-Bong Coo ball in 2001 and in 2003, they are approved by the USBC (United States Bowling Congress) for use in international competitions. In 2003, the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) bowlers honored her through the Filipino bowlers of UAE in the "Bong Coo MVP Cup"
 participated in by OFW's from Brunei, Malaysia, Guam, California, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Singapore. She provides free bowling training to youth bowlers from OFW families.