swimmer
Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...
. A member of the Canadian national team until 2022, she has represented Canada at the Olympic and World championship level, and is a two-time Olympic medalist. She is one of Canada's most prominent Filipina Canadian athletes.
Early life
Kayla Sanchez was born on 7 April 2001 in Singapore. She was born to Filipino parents who were
Overseas Filipino Workers
Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) is a term often used to refer to Filipino migrant workers, people with Filipino citizenship who reside in another country for a limited period of employment. The number of these workers was roughly 1.77 million be ...
; her father is a native of
Mabalacat
Mabalacat, officially the City of Mabalacat ( pam, Lakanbalen ning Mabalacat; fil, Lungsod ng Mabalacat), is a 3rd class component city in the province of Pampanga, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 293,244 people ...
, Pampanga while her mother traces her roots to Baguio. Her family eventually emigrated to Canada.
Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
. She won two individual medals, a silver in the 200 m individual medley and bronze in the 100 m freestyle, and was part of a Canadian sweep of the gold medals in the women's relay events, taking gold in the 4x100 m and 4x200 freestyle as well as in the 4x100 medley. In the process the team broke the junior world record and
championship record
The sports under the umbrella of athletics, particularly track and field, use a variety of statistics. In order to report that information efficiently, numerous abbreviations have grown to be common in the sport. Starting in 1948 by Bert Nelson a ...
.
Later that year she also competed at her senior championships, the
2017 World Aquatics Championships
The 17th FINA World Championships ( hu, 2017-es úszó-világbajnokság) were held in Budapest, Hungary from 14 to 30 July 2017.
Canada's
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total ...
2018 Commonwealth Games
The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...
team. Individually, she finished sixth in the
50 m freestyle
5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on eac ...
, seventh in the
100 m freestyle
The 100 metre freestyle is often considered to be the highlight (Blue Ribbon event) of the sport of swimming, like 100 metres in the sport of Athletics.
The first swimmer to break the one-minute barrier (long course) was Johnny Weissmuller, in 1 ...
, and ninth in the heats of the 200 m medley. She won two silver medals as part of the Canadian relay teams in the 4x100 m and 4x200 m.
2019 season
In the Autumn of 2019, Sanchez was member of the inaugural International Swimming League swimming for the Energy Standard International Swim Club, who won the team title in Las Vegas, Nevada, in December. At the London match in November she won the 200m Freestyle over teammate
Femke Heemskerk
Frederike Johanna Maria "Femke" Heemskerk (; born 21 September 1987) is a former Dutch competitive swimmerCanadian team for the
2019 World Aquatics Championships
The 2019 World Aquatics Championships were the 18th FINA World Aquatics Championships, held in Gwangju, South Korea from 12 to 28 July 2019. The city had previously hosted the 2015 Summer Universiade aquatics events in the same venues.
in
Gwangju
Gwangju () is South Korea's sixth-largest metropolis. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister. The city was also the capital of South Jeolla Province until the provincial office ...
, she won bronze medals in the 4x100 m and 4x200 m freestyle relays.
2020 Summer Olympics
In 2021, Sanchez was part of the Canadian team for the
2020 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.
Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...
Maggie Mac Neil
Hannah Margaret McNair "Maggie" Mac NeilHer surname is sometimes incorrectly rendered as MacNeil in news reporting and television graphics. (born 26 February 2000) is a Canadian competitive swimmer. A 100 metre butterfly event specialist, she ...
Penny Oleksiak
Penelope Oleksiak (born June 13, 2000) is a Canadian competitive swimmer. Her country's most decorated Olympian, Oleksiak rose to fame during the 2016 Summer Olympics, where she became the first Canadian to win four medals in the same Summer Gam ...
. She also swam the freestyle leg in the heats of the 4x100 m medley relay, helping the Canadian team finish the heats in first place, and earned a bronze medal when the finals team finished third (having been replaced in the final by Oleksiak).
Sanchez competed individually in the heats of the
100 m freestyle
The 100 metre freestyle is often considered to be the highlight (Blue Ribbon event) of the sport of swimming, like 100 metres in the sport of Athletics.
The first swimmer to break the one-minute barrier (long course) was Johnny Weissmuller, in 1 ...
, setting a new personal best and qualifying through to the semi-finals, but withdrew to conserve energy for the 4x200 m freestyle relay, where the Canadian team ultimately finished fourth.
2021 season
Sanchez announced plans to study political science at the University of British Columbia beginning in January 2022, following the completion of the ISL's third season. As part of her studies she would compete as part of UBC's Thunderbirds swimming team.
The season concluded at the 2021 World Swimming Championships, where Sanchez won four medals (three gold and one silver) as part of Canadian relay teams.
2022 season
At the Canadian swimming trials for upcoming championship events, Sanchez was fourth in the 200 m freestyle, before unexpectedly winning the 100 m event, finishing 0.02 ahead of
Penny Oleksiak
Penelope Oleksiak (born June 13, 2000) is a Canadian competitive swimmer. Her country's most decorated Olympian, Oleksiak rose to fame during the 2016 Summer Olympics, where she became the first Canadian to win four medals in the same Summer Gam ...
. She concluded the event with a decisive win in the 50 m freestyle.
Beginning the
2022 World Aquatics Championships
The 2022 World Aquatics Championships, the 19th edition of the FINA World Aquatics Championships, were held in Budapest, Hungary, from 17 June to 3 July 2022.
In March 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, FINA banned both the Russian an ...
in the 4x100 m freestyle relay, Sanchez was part of Canada's silver medal-winning team, a first for Canadian women at the World Championships. She won her second medal of the championships in the 4×200 m freestyle relay, where the Canadian team finished third. On the same day, Sanchez placed sixth in the semi-finals of the
100 m freestyle
The 100 metre freestyle is often considered to be the highlight (Blue Ribbon event) of the sport of swimming, like 100 metres in the sport of Athletics.
The first swimmer to break the one-minute barrier (long course) was Johnny Weissmuller, in 1 ...
, qualifying to her first individual Worlds final. Sanchez qualified to the semi-finals of the
50 m freestyle
5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on eac ...
, but scratched from the semi-finals in order to conserve energy for the 4×100 m mixed freestyle relay final in the same session. She recorded a personal best relay split time of 52.52 as part of the Canadian team's silver medal win. Sanchez then competed the freestyle leg for Team Canada in the heats of the 4×100 m medley relay, helping the team qualify to the final in fourth position. She was replaced in the final by Oleksiak, but shared in the team's bronze medal win. She, Oleksiak and Summer McIntosh jointly set a record at the championships for most medals by a Canadian swimmer at a single edition, with four each.
In July 2022, Philippine Swimming announced that Sanchez would start representing the Philippines