As an active athlete, my motto was to never give up and to give the best of what you have. When you compete, you won't always win, right? But you learn. You have to learn from your mistakes.
A gold at the 1986 Asian Games, many trophies and medals, and a successful nursing career later, this mindset has remained at the core of accomplished bowler Arianne Cerdena Valdez. Born and raised in sport thanks to her family, she eventually got her start in bowling watching her dad and his 8 siblings play.
What started as a mere tagging-along experience turned into a strong development in the sport, and soon enough Cerdena found herself evolving from duckpin bowling to ten-pin bowling, and forming bonds with who would eventually become her closest peers – now-Philippine Sports Commissioner Bong Coo, Paeng Nepomuceno, Lita dela Rosa, Rosie de Leon, Bec Watanabe, and Cecil Gaffud. Determined to build on her talents, she made it to the national team after only one year of playing ten-pin bowling.
Keeping up her dedication to excellence, it also didn’t take long before she started racking one milestone after another – a Gold at the 1988 Olympic Games Women Finals Games demonstration event; Gold and Bronze at the 1986 Asian Games (for Team of 5 and Doubles, respectively)...among many others. She credits her successes not only to her values of discipline and grit, but also to her coach, the legendary Toti Lopa, with whom she had a very close relationship and helped push her to the top.
She also shares an unforgettable anecdote with Mr. Lopa: “As a coach, he was very good. He was perfect for me [...] During competitions, he never made me feel that I was ahead [already]. He made me feel that I had to make more strikes. He’d only show me results during the last game; [and at the end of one game], I was 180 pins ahead of the second placer. That was how far ahead I was. Kumbaga, ang ganda ng tandem namin ni Mr. Toti Lopa; and until now I'm still very, very grateful to him, to my parents, sa mga ginawa nilang pag-aalaga sa akin.”
She closed out her bowling career on a high, winning Gold for Doubles at the 2001 SEA Games and eventually relocated to the United States, where her husband had been living for a time. The move allowed her to not only be able to finally spend time with him and their growing daughter; but also go back to school and in the medical field, eventually making her way into nursing.
Cerdena shares that being a registered nurse is in many ways much like being an athlete. She experienced this most during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, wherein she had to serve in the frontlines and take care of patients while looking out for a family of her own. Cerdena shares, “We have a mission. Our mission is to take care of the sick. Same as an athlete: your mission is to win medals for your country. Hindi nawala sa akin ang tapang to fight, and the courage to stay strong.”
While Cerdena has had a fruitful career in nursing, she still has an upcoming mission: to find her way back to bowling. Still keeping in touch with her bowling peers, such as Commissioner Bong Coo, she plans to ultimately come back to the Philippines to serve as a mentor to the next generation of bowlers. She wishes to continue cultivating a culture of closeness among athletes, one that makes them feel like family and learn from one another. All in all, it seems to tie up quite well with her own greatest lesson that she’s picked up from her champion journey – the reminder to cherish every moment, have fun, and value what you have and what you’ve learned.
