Wednesday, August 27, 2008 Editorials: Determination to win
TEAM Philippines might as well have been called Team Debacle, referring to what happened to our team in the Beijing Olympics.
However, the fact that the gold medal has eluded our athletes’ grasp since we participated in the Olympics should not be used to prove the limits of our athletes’ physical prowess.
Well, there was that time in the late1950s when the Philippines almost got a gold medal, getting a silver in boxing.
Yet, other nations smaller and less populated won more medals than expected.
In sports, the difference between winning and losing lies in the determination and will-to-win among members of the team or among individual competitors.
This attitude strictly defines the motivation, quality of training, and personal courage that each one develops and nourishes within.
It is the reality toward which each strives to achieve.
London
Thus, in essence, most countries participating in the Olympics somehow tries to attain a collective focus to succeed.
This was what Beijing did when it worked to have a near flawless holding of the 2008 Olympics, spending about $40 to attain it.
In return, it topped the list with 51 gold medals, 15 more than the United States.
While the US was ten medals ahead of China, the fact remains that the latter has become a world power by itself, athletically speaking.
The next Olympics will be held in London in 2012, and Great Britain, which came in 4th in Beijing, is prepared to spend nine billion pounds.
Britain ruled the 1908 Olympics in London with 56 gold medals. But it only had one gold medal in Atlanta in 1996.
Recognizing the fact that it can not top the Beijing show, London has decided to go for the Fun Games or the Fun Olympics, something that the tight security in Beijing was unable to produce.
Determination
This occasion can offer the Philippines another opportunity to aspire for the nation’s first gold medal.
But government must muster a determination to win, and back it up with cash.
It is such a shame that a small nation like Jamaica or Georgia could do it.
Why can’t RP?
It is not in the food we eat, certainly not in the way the diet of our athletes is planned.
It can only be in the lack of serious moral support from our government officials and our national leaders.
It could be that our athletes in training do not possess the kind of spirit necessary to make them dedicate their heart and soul to the Philippine flag as others do.
