Tuesday, August 10, 2004 Pages: Go for gold By John Pages Match point
IT WAS 3 p.m., way past lunch. For nearly two hours, my then-girlfriend Jasmin and I sat patiently inside Triple V, awaiting his arrival.
Outside, hundreds crammed the SM City Cebu corridors. Finally, first a whisper then a roaring crescendo, the mall erupts. Arms are raised, the clapping thunderous, pandemonium everywhere. Like a wrestling match when the champ enters the ring, “Onyok! Onyok! Onyok!” the halls reverberated.
The year was 1996, in early August, barely days after Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco – diminutive in size but not outsized in power – punched his way to Olympic glory before losing a “he-should’ve-won-it” final to Bulgarian Daniel Petrov.
For an hour that afternoon, we lunched beside Onyok. Never mind the eyes peering through glass windows catching our every bite, it was an exclusive affair, upon the invitation of then-Philippine Sports Commission honcho Monico Puentevella.
“Te, kamusta na?” I recall asking the Bago City native, who donned his signature blue-and-red jacket with RP flag. “Gwapo man gihapon!” he answered as quick as his jab.
Onyok was a blockbuster. His every dance step mimicked by children in every street corner.
His flashing smile as wide as a boxing ring. His mere presence elicited shrieks that would deafen an Aga or a Richard. He owned the title, RP hero. And more. Two just-off-the-showroom cars. A house with a plot of land. Pension for life. The art-imitates-life “The Onyok Velasco Story” movie. Everybody wanted to be Onyok.
To think he won only silver.
What if a Filipino wins gold next week?
Will GMA declare a month-long holiday? The P10 million pot money doubled, tripled? How many cars? Houses? Five? 10?
Frankly, it’s about time. Indonesia, Thailand and even tiny Hong Kong (population: seven million) have snatched gold in badminton, boxing and wind surfing, respectively.
WEAK. How about us? Aren’t we 82-million strong? Or shall I say, 82-million weak?
We are honored in Olympic history, all right. What distinction? Tied for second place (with Chile) as the country with the most medals won without a gold. Mongolia has 14, we have nine.
What if a Filipino wins gold next week?
It’s about time. We’ve waited 80 years since our Olympic debut in 1924. David Nepomuceno, a one-man contingent, then carried the national colors in the opening parade and ran the 100 and 200-meter sprints, reaching no farther than the heats. (Coincidentally, the winners became the subjects of the Academy-award-winning film “Chariots of Fire.”)
Since that Paris debut, RP has had 359 Olympiads. After 17 editions, we’ve harvested two silvers (Anthony Villanueva in 1964, and Onyok) and seven bronzes: Boxers Jose Villanueva (1932), Leopoldo Serrantes (1988) and Roel Velasco (1992), swimmer Teofilo Yldefonso (1928 and 1932), high-jumper Simeon Toribio (1932) and 400-meter hurdler Miguel White (1936).
What if a Filipino wins gold next week?
Frankly, we already have. Twice.
Back in the 1948 London Olympics, the first after World War II, a young Filipino-American, Victoria Manalo, born of a Filipino father and English mother, became the first woman to win Olympic gold medals in both springboard and platform diving. Sadly, she chose to be listed an American.
Then in 1988 in Seoul, Arianne Cerdeña captured gold. Unfortunately, bowling was an exhibition sport; and in fact, was later scrapped as part of the Games.
What if a Filipino wins gold next week?
It’s about time. Sixteen athletes have that chance: Boxing (4) Harry Tañamor, Violito Payla, Romeo Brin and Christ Camat; Taekwondo (3) Marie Antoinette Rivero, Tshomlee Go and Donald Geisler; Track and Field (2) Eduardo Buenavista and Lerma Bulauitan; Swimming (5) Miguel Mendoza, Miguel Molina, James Walsh, Jackie Pangilinan, and Raphael “Timmy” Chua; Archery (1) Jasmine Figueroa; Shooting (1) Jethro Dionisio.
Five of the 16 are holdovers from the Sydney Games: Geisler, Buenavista, Bulauitan, Mendoza, and Brin, who becomes only the 12th Filipino to compete in three Olympics.
Will this be it? The moment? When we’ll witness the RP flag hoisted proud, flying high? The Pambansang Awit sung? Tears of pride rolling down our cheeks?
Like they did once in Greece?
It was July 22, 1973 when Margie Moran won the 1973 Miss Universe pageant in – where else? – the ancient Herod Atticus Theater at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens.
What if a Filipino wins gold next week?
After 80 years, I can’t wait.
(john@playhouse.edu.ph)
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