Wednesday, August 27, 2008 Rama: Quo vadis, Team Philippines? By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
LET’S call a spade a spade. Team Philippines faded into oblivion in the sixteen days that separated the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Games; and the whole world was witness to the embarrassment.
Our athletes failed us. Although they did their best—after all, who goes to the Olympics to earn a loss—it wasn’t good enough. And telling them that they are no less than heroes is being shallow. Placating only strips the agony off defeat, taking with it lessons losses bring.
And we failed our athletes. The government sent athletes like long-jumper Henry Dagmil abroad, without his coach, to train for six months or so. In contrast, other countries sent theirs for training that lasted three years with a full compliment of support staff.
No big surprise there when the South Cotabato native wondered aloud how he was supposed to win when his training was only a portion of what his competitors got and when the coach he was returning home to had no clue about what he had just learned.
How odd for a government that spent hundreds of millions on overpriced decorative lampposts in 2006, to beautify a city that the heads of states of Southeast Asian countries would later visit, to penny-pinch in the training of citizens about to do battle in an arena with the whole world as audience.
Too bad corruption and political grand-standing aren’t Olympic events. We would surely ace both in the manner Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt sprinted through the 100-
meter dash – without breaking a sweat.
I’m sure Jack Biantan, the former editor of Sun.Star Cebu’s sports pages and whose boisterous laughter in the newsroom is sorely missed, would agree.
Jack, who has since left the life of a sports pundit behind to enjoy the sights and sounds of Her Majesty’s Great Britain, emailed the sports desk last Monday and called for the abolition of the Philippine Sports Commission.
He said the PSC has not helped to uplift Philippine sports to the level which we hope it to be.
PSC chairman William “Butch” Ramirez has already offered his head and suggested that all members of the agency’s board should resign – Richie Garcia, Akiko Thomson, Eric Loretizo and Ambrosio de Luna.
“If there is a need for heads to roll, then they will have to roll, including ours,” Ramirez said. “And if I have to move out, then I will move out. We have to move forward and implement some radical changes for the improvement of Philippine sports.”
Whether he was serious or not would depend on how you interpret his subsequent quote on boxing: “Let’s pick the Top 20 boxer and give them a Cuban coach, so when the 2012 Olympic comes, they are all ready to win the gold medal.”
How to solve the country’s Olympic medal drought is way beyond my pay grade. Trying to Jun Liao’s spinning metal plates at Kamagong Gun Club has got me dumbfounded enough as it is.
But the country can learn a lot from an adage shooters often use and Mel Gibson once quoted in a movie – aim small, miss small. Choosing only those events where the Filipinos actually has a chance of winning and then investing heavily in training the athletes in these is a step in the right direction.
Wushu appears to be one such sport. And we have a head start.
Eclipsed by the dismal failure of his co-athletes, Willy Wang of Binondo, Manila, swept the Taolu (forms) events of the Wushu competition in Beijing, winning what should have been the country’s first gold medal in Olympic history.
Despite the prestige of defeating athletes, among them those representing the country where the sport was born in, however, his gold doesn’t count.
Wushu is not yet recognized as an official Olympic event and was held only as a demonstration sport at the Beijing Games.
Many believe though that it is just a matter of time before Wushu gets International Olympic Committee recognition and becomes a regular event like Tae Kwon Do, Karate-do and Judo. So why not prepare?
