Every Olympics, the point that we are a nation of 100 million individuals achieveing so little in the international stage is almost always raised. Some love to point out how tiny nations fare better than us despite having a smaller pool of athletes to draw from. This was pointed out early in the games but that got overshadowed when Hidilyn Diaz won her historic gold and our boxers advanced to the medal round.
Let’s go back to the population story because I love to correct this myth. We may be a country of 100 million but our pool of elite athletes is very small, at best it’s just 10,000 every year. Why that number? That’s the number of athletes that play in the Palarong Pambansa and they are the best of the best in their age groups of their regions.
And when you have other stand alone national competitions like swimming, football or basketball, it’s also a given that the same kids who face each other in the Palaro also face each other in these competitions.
So yes, our pool of athletes doesn’t reflect that we are a country of 100 million.
Access to sports in our country has always been mostly for the privileged and we need to correct that. Make sports more affordable with free to the public courts all over the country. Aside from getting kids into sports, this could also become green zones where citizens can jog, relax or play.
But let’s face it. Most towns have a plaza but only have a basketball court, which gets crowded during weekends. (Pre-pandemic of course.)
Investment in sports is rare and whenever there are millions spent for sports, it’s mostly for a venue that would host a Palarong Pambansa, a stadium that almost often becomes a white elephant.
Why not invest in each town so its plaza will become a suitable venue for multi-sports and not just basketball? That way, kids in the provinces can have access to a decent venue.
Why the focus on kids? It’s simple, the more kids get into sport, the bigger our pool of elite athletes is.
It’s supposed to be the job of sports commissions all over the country to get kids into sports but we all know, pre-pandemic, that most of these sports commissions only get busy with basketball tournaments during election time.
That needs to change. Otherwise, we will keep on pining on how a nation of 100 million can produce so few Olympians.