Volleyball star Fifi Sharma may yet ‘do a Michele Gumabao’
Volleyball star Fifi Sharma. Image from Instagram
Since Michele Gumabao, no other volleyball star has taken a plunge in pageantry. Fans say Fifi Sharma could follow the same path as she had done, and the young volleybellle said Ahtisa Manalo‘s Miss Universe Philippines victory may just nudge her towards that direction.
The Akari Chargers middle blocker caught the attention of Filipino pageant fans when she sat at the judging panel of the 60th Binibining Pilipinas last year.
“Last year, I told everybody that there’s no chance that they’re gonna see me in a pageant,” Sharma told INQUIRER.net at the sidelines of the “Summer Fest 2025” event at a mall in Mandaluyong City on May 8. “But recently with [Manalo] winning Miss Universe Philippines, I’ve been really invested in watching the previous Miss Universes, you know, Catriona Gray,” she continued.
Sharma said she has found a new found love for pageantry and may perhaps consider treading the same path as Gumabao had taken. Just like the more senior volleyball player, she has also jumped into newscasting, occasionally appearing in “Frontline Pilipinas.”
Before Gumabao was proclaimed as second runner-up in the first staging of the Miss Universe Philippines pageant held in 2000, she was crowned as 2018 Bb. Pilipinas Globe in the same national pageant that produced Gray.
Sharma’s stint in the longest-running national pageant as judge last year remains to be, for her, “one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”
She found it “surreal” to be in the same judging panel alongside the most iconic beauty queens of the Philippines, Miss Universe winners Gloria Diaz, Margie Moran, and Pia Wurtzbach.
“I couldn’t move. I was tense all the time, because I was just so used to seeing them on television, tapos (and then) I don’t know, for some reason, whatever happened, I got to sit at the same table as them,” Sharma shared.
Noting her appearance in the Bb. Pilipinas pageant as a huge privilege, Sharma also shared the insights she gained from the experience.
“Filipino women are so confident, this is the biggest takeaway I had. Because just watching them flaunt what they have, showing their body, their color, representing the Philippines, for me, as a Filipina, makes me so empowered and so inspired,” she said. /edv
