Olympian and Filipino table tennis star Ian Lariba died late Sunday night, September 2, following a year-long battle with acute myeloid leukemia. She was 23.

She was the first Filipina table tennis player to qualify for the Olympics, seeing action in the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She also carried the Philippine flag in the opening ceremonies as the country's flag-bearer.

In her 5-year UAAP career, Lariba went undefeated for De La Salle University and won 3 Most Valuable Player awards. She led the Lady Paddlers to 3 UAAP titles.

PTTFi statement regarding Ian Lariba’s death:

With heavy hearts, we mourn the loss of our star, our first ever olympian, arguably the greatest Filipina table tennis player of all time Ian Lariba. From her days as a table tennis prodigy, and at such young age winning all of the tournaments she joined, to her storied UAAP career, where she never lost a single match while winning UAAP Athlete of the year twice, to being a constant fixture in the DLSU deans list during her playing days, to qualifying for the Olympics, to battling cancer, she was a fighter and true table tennis ambassador and she put table tennis in the newspaper television & social media map, a sport which was not given much importance before in our country. Our sympathies and prayers are with her family.