Filipino-Saudi swimmer Jasmine Alkhaldi harvested four medals in the 30th Southeast Asian Games held in New Clark City Aquatics Center, Philippines.
The two-time Olympic qualifier got her silver from the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay together with Filipino swimmers Nicole Oliva, Remedy Rule and Xiandi Chua.
Singapore outclassed the Filipino lady tankers and broke the SEAG record at 3:40.92.
The 26-year old lass snagged a bronze in women’s 100 backstroke, clocking 1:04.08 which is two seconds behind Vietnam’s Thi Anh Nguyen who took the gold and a second behind fellow Filipina swimmer Chloe Isleta who took the silver.
Alkhaldi also placed third in the women’s 50 butterfly (27.09 seconds) behind Ting Wen Quah of Singapore (26.50) and Thailand’s Ard Jenjira Srisa (26.24).
Three days ago, she got her first SEAG 2019 bronze medal in women’s 100-meter freestyle, with 55.76 seconds, a slight improvement from her 2017 performance when she clocked 55.90s and broke the national record.
The SEAG veteran represented the Philippines in 2012 London Olympics and 2016 Rio Olympics. She was born in the Philippines by a Filipino mother from Cebu and Saudi Arabian father.
A business graduate from the University of Hawaii, she currently holds the Philippine record for women’s swimming in the 50-, 100-, and 200-meter freestyle, and both 50- and 100-meter butterfly events.
During the 2012 Summer Olympics, Saudi Arabia sent female athletes for the first time but even then they were required to be accompanied by male companion and their hair covered. So Alkhaldi became popular in online Saudi Arabian social networks during the London Olympics, because she was a woman of Saudi Arabian origin who competed in the Olympic Games.
