31 May 2017

The entire table tennis family is saddened by the news of Philippines' table tennis Olympian Ian Lariba being diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. On 30th May 2017, table tennis players from all over the world gathered at the ongoing Liebherr 2017 World Championships in Düsseldorf to send messages of support to Lariba.

By Neha Aggarwal

Lariba is Philippine’s table tennis star who became the country’s first table tennis athlete to qualify for 2016 Rio Olympics. She was also Philippine’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony.

She is an alumna of De La Salle University in Philippines, and an official statement was released by the university on her current situation.

It said, “DLSU alumna and Philippine Olympian Ian Lariba was recently diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), her family announced on May 29. She will undergo treatment this week,”

Lariba is registered to take part at the ongoing Liebherr 2017 World Championships currently being held at Messe arena in Düsseldorf, but did not make the flight to the tournament.

As the news of her diagnosis spread in Düsseldorf, players from all over the world gathered to support Lariba.

Additionally, many athletes from De La Salle took to social media to ask for Type O blood for the 22-year-old Lariba.

The hashtag #KayaMoYan went viral over the internet in support for Lariba. Many fundraising support campaigns have been coming up in Philippines, and messages to support her spread all over the internet.

Below is the video of messages from table tennis players from Düsseldorf:

Liebherr 2017 World Championships