Marie-Lizza Toinette Danila (born September 17, 1982) is a Filipino former swimmer, who specialized in backstroke events. She represented the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, as a 17-year-old, at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

, and later collected a total of six silver medals in a backstroke double at the

Southeast Asian Games The Southeast Asian Games, commonly known as SEA Games is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with sup ...

(1999, 2001, and 2003) before her official retirement in 2005. She is also a top 8 finalist at the

2002 Asian Games The 2002 Asian Games, officially known as the XIV Asian Games and also known as Busan 2002 (), were an international multi-sport event held in Busan, South Korea from September 29 to October 14, 2002. Due to schedule impediments the football tour ...

Busan, South Korea Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

Career

Danila competed only in the women's 100 m backstroke at the

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. She achieved a

FINA World Aquatics, formerly known as FINA (; ), is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administering international competitions in List of water sports, water sports. It is one of several interna ...

B-cut of 1:06.19 after winning a silver medal from the

in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. Swimming in heat one, Danila, who just turned 18 on the second day of the Games, gave the Filipinos a further reason to celebrate, as she overhauled a 1:07 barrier and rocketed to a fantastic first-place finish in a sterling time of 1:06.48. Danila's blistering triumph was not worthy enough to put her through to the semifinals, as she placed thirty-seventh overall out of 47 swimmers in the prelims. At the

2001 Southeast Asian Games The 2001 Southeast Asian Games (), officially known as the 21st Southeast Asian Games, were a Southeast Asian multi-sport event held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This was the fifth time that Malaysia plays as SEA Games hosts, the country previous ...

in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Danila defended her silver medals each in the 100 m backstroke (1:05.10) and in the 200 m backstroke (2:23.47), finishing behind Thailand's top favorite Chonlathorn Vorathamrong by more than a full body length. Two years later, at the

, Danila failed to medal in any of her individual events, finishing ninth in the 100 m backstroke (1:06.44), and eighth in the 200 m backstroke (2:22.19).

References

1982 births Living people Filipino female backstroke swimmers Olympic swimmers for the Philippines Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2002 Asian Games People from San Pablo, Laguna Sportspeople from Laguna (province) SEA Games medalists in swimming SEA Games silver medalists for the Philippines Competitors at the 1999 SEA Games Competitors at the 2001 SEA Games Competitors at the 2003 SEA Games Asian Games swimmers for the Philippines {{Philippines-swimming-bio-stub