BEFORE she became one of the country’s most decorated gymnasts, Daniela Reggie Dela Pisa has suffered more than her share of letdowns especially when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age four.
After bouts with radiation and chemotherapy and with the help of gymnastics, Dela Pisa completely defeated the Big C four years ago.
“Gymnastics really motivated me to stay alive because I want to continue training and I really loved the sport,” said Daniela who started competing at age seven.
Now she is on top of her sport, winning back-to-back gold medals in the 2014 and the 2015 Palarong Pambansa and bagging four bronzes in last year’s 13th Singapore Open.
Her mother Darlene, a former gymnast and the head coach of UV gymnastics said that she never wanted Daniela to become a gymnast because of her cancer but the burning desire of her daughter to continue the family tradition proved much stronger than her disease.
Yesterday at the SM Seaside Mountain Wing, Dela Pisa collected five golds to help the UV gymnastics secondary team rule the 2017 Milo Little Olympics Gymnastics competition.
The UV gymnastics team harvested 13 golds, eight silvers and two bronzes beating the Abellana National School (1-4-7) and third placer University of San Jose-Recoletos (0-1-3).
The 14-year old Dela Pisa topped the rope, ball, clubs and all around contest and bagged the team gold alongside Marianne Alegado and Theresia Regner.