Emma Malabuyo plans to compete balance beam, floor exercise for the Philippines at upcoming Asian Championships

UCLA standout Emma Malabuyo will make her debut competing for the Philippines next month at the Asian Gymnastics Championships in Singapore.

The event, which is a qualifier for September's World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, is scheduled for 10-18 June.

"I'm really excited to compete for them," Malabuyo told Olympics.com Friday (26 May) in an exclusive interview. "I'm full Filipino [and] just excited to represent my family. I want to make my grandparents proud."

The California native was a standout for many years on the U.S. national team, finishing second at the U.S. Championships as a junior in 2017.

In 2021, Malabuyo took fourth at the U.S. nationals before finishing ninth at the U.S. Olympic team trials. She was then named an alternate to the U.S. squad for Tokyo 2020.

On Friday, Malabuyo said the idea of returning to elite gymnastics had been circling in her mind since finishing her freshman season a year ago at the University of California, Los Angeles. But competing for the Philippines, where her grandparents are from, did not start to take shape until a week after April's NCAA championships.

"I was actually approached with this idea by Cliff Parks, who works with the Filipino national team," said Malabuyo. "At first, I was like, 'I think I'm done with elite.' Then I started really thinking about it, and I was like, 'I'm playing in the gym, I can still do these difficult skills. Like, why not?'"

"There's still some unfinished business in my career. I want to go back to elite gymnastics and really challenge myself."

Emma Malabuyo: 'I want to show beautiful, clean gymnastics'

In the last month, the 20-year-old has been focused on securing a Filipino passport, changing her FIG license from USA to the Philippines and putting together elite routines on the balance beam and floor - though she expects to make only slight changes to both for the Asian Championships.

"I just want to go out there and show some beautiful, clean gymnastics," said Malabuyo. "So, I'm basically doing my college routines. On floor, still keeping the same tumbling passes, just adding in my leaps and turns that are more difficult. And then, from there, I want to be able to add on later. Same with beam, just keeping my same basic skills, just adding a few combinations.

"Just trying to execute the routines as best as I can, like a base routine for this competition, just putting myself out there and hopefully starting to build slowly," she continued. "I really want to add back in vault and bars."

If all goes well in Singapore, Malabuyo hopes to add more events for the World Championships and hasn't ruled out trying for Paris 2024.

"I have always wanted to compete at a World Championships, and I would always get injured right before, so that was definitely hard for me, and I love competing internationally," said Malabuyo. "So, I think the goal is hopefully to qualify for a World Championships, and then, maybe from there, possibly competing in the Olympics would be a dream."