The Philippine Swimming Inc. said it has originally included Chloe Isleta in the national roster for the 19th FINA World Championships.
But everything changed when the PSI learned that one of their qualified swimmers, Luke Gebbie, got injured and won’t make it.
“This put PSI in a predicament as the same FINA BL 9.6.3.2b indicates that with only two athletes achieving a Standard Entry Time, the four athletes sent to the Championships will have to be broken down as two men, and two women,” said PSI president Lani Velasco in a statement.
Velasco explained that with Gebbie backing out, they could not submit Isleta as an entry because there has to be two qualifiers in the 100-meter event.
Despite efforts of PSI to seek an exception from FINA, the request was denied. PSI was only allowed to replace Luke with Jonathan Cook.
On June 9, 2022, the PSI updated its roster for the World Championships to include Jasmine Alkhaldi in the women’s 50-meter freestyle, and Miranda Renner in the women’s 50-meter butterfly.
Cook was listed as a qualifier in the men’s 200m Breaststroke as a Universality entry.
“PSI emphasizes that it intended to send Chloe to the championships but was forced to pull her out only due to Luke’s unfortunate injury. There was no preferential treatment given to any athlete and, to the best of its efforts, PSI provided all its athletes with as much opportunity to qualify as FINA made possible,” said Velasco, who took note that “the mother of Chloe has been trying to rally people who are not members of PSI to protest PSI’s decision to pull out Chloe.
“She has even been trying to get the government involved. This will only create unnecessary turmoil in the community,” said Velasco.
“PSI is concerned what effect this will have on Chloe and the other athletes involved. It only wants its athletes to be focused on what they are supposed to be doing—training harder to improve on their performances. There are plenty more opportunities for Chloe and the other athletes to represent the country and PSI looks forward to that,” added Velasco.