Elma Muros

Early life and education

Elma Muros was born on January 14, 1967 in the town of Magdiwang, Romblon in Sibuyan Island. She is the 6th eldest child in a brood of nine. Her mother is a former athlete who competed in the 400 meter sprint in her youth. She attended the Roosevelt College in Rizal under a scholarship granted by then Rizal governor Isidro Rodriguez.

Career

Muros is involved in track and field competitively as early as when she was 14 years old. At that time, she was scouted by local officials looking for potential athletes for the Southern Tagalog Regional Athletics Association sporting meet.

Muros-Posadas won a total of 15 gold medals in the Southeast Asian Games, a record number in the athletics competition which she jointly holds with Jennifer Tin Lay of Myanmar.

Muros won eight South East Asian Games titles in the long jump the first at the age of 16 in 1983. At one point, she also dominated the sprints winning both the 100 and 200 metres in the 1995 Southeast Asian Games.

She was also a competitor for the Philippines in the long jump event at the Olympic Games in 1984 and 1996. She represented her country at the World Championships in Athletics on four occasions: in the 400 m hurdles in 1991, the long jump in 1995 and 1997, and the 100 metres in 1997. She was also a five-time participant at the IAAF World Indoor Championships, competing in 1985, 1989, 1993, 1995 and 1997 in sprints and long jump.

She was a two-time medallist at the Asian Games, taking the long jump bronze medal at the 1994 Games as well as a 400 metres hurdles bronze medal in 1990. She won four medals in the long jump at the Asian Athletics Championships over the course of her career, winning silver medals in 1983 and 1989, then bronze medals at the 1993 and 1995 editions.

She holds several Filipino records: 57.57 seconds for the 400 m hurdles, 5346 points for the heptathlon (set at the 1998 Asian Games), 3:40.9 minutes for the 4×400 metres relay, 25.05 seconds for the indoor 200 metres and 6.11 m for the indoor long jump.

She was a two-time PSA Sportsman of the Year, winning the award in 1993 and 1995. She attended Far Eastern University in Manila.

Since her retirement in 2001, Muros-Posadas has appeared several times on the reality television show Survivor Philippines. In 2011, Elma landed a role in her very own biographical and loosely-based independent movie directed by Paul Soriano, "Thelma", who won best director in the 30th Luna Awards with his direction in this movie. Elma's life and a combination of many provincial athletes and their lives and struggles were portrayed by famous Filipina actress, Maja Salvador, who won Best Actress in the 30th Luna Awards played the lead role for, "Thelma", as Thelma. The movie won Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography in the 30th Luna Awards.

In 2016, Muros was reported to be working at Brent International School in Biñan, Laguna, University of the East and Jose Rizal University where she along with her husband train the youth in sports. In early 2017, Muros along with former boxer Onyok Velasco was tasked by the Philippine Sports Commission to aid the country's grassroots program.

Personal life

Muros is married to George "Jojo" Noel "Jojo" V. Posadas, coach of the Philippine athletics team with whom she has a daughter and a son. As of 2016, they are residents of Santa Rosa, Laguna. Her daughter, Klarrizze Yvhonne (b. 1992), was with the basketball team of the Ateneo de Manila University where she obtained her degree in Psychology. It was at this time that Muros-Posadas took a break from sports, opting to skip the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Eleven years later, she gave birth to her son, George Michael Jr. who is now a student in Brent International School Manila and also active in sports.