GOING FOR GOLD MEANS LOTS OF LUCK

The Philippine Star
08/08/08

Today is 8-8-08!!! The Chinese see this day to be extremely lucky and brings with it all sorts of good fortune, which explains why organizers chose this day to kick off the biggest show on Earth this year, the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Even before the international stage showcases the world’s best athletes, Team Philippines had sent a pocket contingent of 15 athletes accompanied by double or even triple that number of officials, guests and, yes, freeloaders – which is par for the course.

With the opening salvo of the quadrennial summer games kicking off on the luckiest day of the year by Chinese standards, let’s hope that Team Philippines gets its share of luck if the country is to realize its decades-long dream of winning the elusive first Olympic gold medal – or even just a medal of any hue.

Don’t get me wrong. But with the way our sports development program is whimsically run, bringing home the gold medal will indeed need a lot of luck.

Velasco’s breakthrough

Since a breakthrough silver medal captured by boxer Mansueto “Onyok”  Velasco in 1996 in Atlanta, much has been said, but not done, regarding true blue sports development program in the country.

Meantime, Asean neighbors Thailand and Malaysia have already realized their gold medal dreams in the 2000 and 2004 editions of the games. Maybe the Thais and Malaysians did something right in their sports development program.

Velasco, after his silver medal feat, was showered with cash incentives and prizes from both the government and private sector. From then on, it became a practice to dangle bigger and more whopping incentives to future Olympic medalists.

It thus appears that rewarding a medal winner is given more importance and priority rather than sustaining government and private sector funding to prepare athletes for competitions, thus effectively boost our athletes’ medal chances.

The carriage before the horse

The perennial rhetoric about sports development and reform for our athletes to ultimately grab the first Olympic gold medal has continually been harped on when a major international sports competition is looming. No one however seems to be listening or doing anything.

What gets more attention though are the generous donors from government and private sector dangling fat bonuses in cash and kind for Olympic medalists. As of last tally, the elusive Olympic gold medal is now worth a total of P15 million in cash and prizes.  

A malicious mind, however, may think that such generous benefactors and patrons really are just after the publicity since the chance that one of our athletes competing in China is practically nil, unless of course, Lady Luck chooses to smile down at us.

What our sports officials should work hard for is looking for benefactors willing to provide funding for an honest-to-goodness long-term sustainable sports development program. On this score, our athletes seem to have no luck.

Any country that’s been continuously reaping gold medals in Olympic events will say that dedicated training should span years, even decades, of meticulous and hard work. Definitely, dangling fat bonuses before inadequately trained athletes is like cracking a big joke.

Team Philippines

Despite the country’s grossly inadequate sports development program, we have managed to form a team whose members were able to hurdle the tough Olympic qualifying standards. Medal hopes are once more pinned on our highly touted tae kwon do jins and lone entry in boxing as well as entries in wushu, which, however is a demonstration or exhibition sport in Beijing. 

Let’s rally behind the entire Team Philippines that includes Rivero, Go, Tanamor, swimmers Miguel Molina, James Walsh, Joan Simms, Ryan Arabejo, Daniel Coakley; divers Shiela May Perez and Rexel Ryan Fabriga, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, tricksters Marestella Torres and Henry Dagmil, archer Mark Javier and shooter Eric Ang.

We all hope that they, with or without a medal, will put up a gallant stand on this prestigious international stage.    

Olympic rites for Olympians

For an athlete to at least qualify or be selected to represent the country to the Olympic Games is a life-defining moment. Even more so if one is tapped to be the country’s flag bearer in the opening rites, an honor usually accorded to the delegation’s best.

And so, it was 2007 SEA Games top swimmer and athlete Miguel Molina who was initially tapped to be the flag bearer. Then, he had to step aside for Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao.

While many other countries will have their Olympic champions and medalists in international sports competition as their flag bearers, we have a professional boxer who is not even a former Olympian to carry our colors.

Well, perhaps we can all overlook this lapse. Pacquiao, after all, stands tall in the world’s professional boxing arena. Foremost, he is the most popular Filipino sports personality in the country and globally today. So why not?

Anyway, here’s to Team Philippines giving its best shot. Mabuhay!

Collegiate Champions League update

Smart, the country’s biggest telecommunication company, recently signed an agreement with the Philippine Collegiate Champions League (PCCL) to support the 2008 Philippine Collegiate Championship games as one of its title sponsors.

Smart joins Fil-Oil Flying V of the Villavicencio group of companies as major supporters of the Philippine Collegiate Championship games.

Bong Mojica, head of Smart’s Wireless Consumer Division, signed the agreement and announced that as part of its sponsorship support, Smart will be conducting promotional activities in the localities where the regional and zonal championships will be held.

According to Bong, these activities are in line with the marketing thrust of the Smart Wireless Consumer Division and will also raise the level of awareness of this significant collegiate basketball event.

As of to date, there are 212 teams from nine regional areas nationwide that are participating in the search for the best collegiate teams in the country. These teams are playing in 26 “mother leagues” that include the major leagues in Metro Manila, the UAAP, NCAA, NAASCU, CUSA, and the CESAFI of Cebu City.

Aside from the prestige of being crowned national champion, schools can also look forward to over P2 million worth of scholarships, grants and prizes at stake in the regional, zonal and national championships.

The Philippine Collegiate Champion will get P500,000.00 in grants and will represent the country to the 2009 Universiade Games to be held in Serbia. The Universiade brings together the top school teams and athletes from around the world in a competition similar to the Olympics.

For more details about the biggest collegiate basketball event for the year, visit www.CollegiateChampionsLeague.net.

Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, SalcedoVillage, 1227 MakatiCity. Or e-mail me at reydgamboa@yahoo.com. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net.