I had no doubt that the Philippine Sports Commission and the camp of Hidilyn Diaz would iron out their differences after the Olympian aired her appeal for private sponsors on social media recently.
Days after that—and after being the subject of the uber loyal defenders of the Old Man in the Palace—Diaz and the PSC met to discuss her ongoing preparations for the Tokyo Olympics.
She even did the DU30 fist pose after her meeting with Butch Ramirez and Charles Maxey, a friend of mine who was part of the advance party of Digong when he was still a candidate.
The affable PSC chairman appealed for the bashers to spare Hidilyn, a call that was echoed by Maxey, so she can concentrate on her Olympic preparation.
Predictably, some trolls came out of the woodwork to bash her in that same post where the PSC commissioner aired that appeal. Life in the Philippines would be 100 times more bearable if these trolls collectively got abducted by aliens.
Too bad that’s not happening soon. But what is happening soon is that the PSC will keep on funding Hidilyn’s preparation, and I think a stint abroad is also in the pipeline.
I never had any doubt that the two camps would see eye to eye even if the PSC also got bashed for its supposed lack of support for elite athletes like Hidilyn.
Chairman Ramirez doesn’t like to toot his horn unlike previous officials of the agency, but under his admin, support to deserving athletes has been given.
In fact, if this was under the previous set-up, Hidilyn wouldn’t be getting a centavo as the national sports association for weightlifting is facing questions of legitimacy. The PSC before was the lapdog of the Philippine Olympic Committee and seemed to have always deferred to the Olympic body when it came to who or what group should get funds.
I’m glad we are no longer under that setup.
NBA FINALS. The Raptors are up 2-1! I don’t know how long the lead will last, but Toronto’s Game 3 win is going to make Game 4 a whole lot intriguing for disinterested fans who had written off the Raptors’ chances against the juggernaut that is the Warriors.
Yes, the Raptors have suddenly gained scores of fans in the finals, and there’s nothing wrong with jumping on the bandwagon. What’s wrong though is to keep on picking on fans who only tune in to the NBA when it’s the finals.
Hey, get a life, will you? In case you don’t know, they’re one of the reasons the NBA has a global following.