A few years before the opening of the Paris Olympics, Hidilyn Diaz, the Philippines’ first gold medal winner in the history of the Olympics, had expressed the worry that the International Olympic Committee or IOC would allow the participation of transgenders, who would declare themselves as women, in women’s sports. This trend, which was made popular in the United States by the Democrats led by President Joe Biden, had consumed many people who believed that this would destroy women’s sports as the world knows it in modern times.
Imagine a biological male participating as a woman in weightlifting against Diaz. Men have physical structures that would allow them to break records in women’s lifting. The Paris Olympics, which is still ongoing, has however, so far courted only a controversy, not in weightlifting but in boxing, and not involving a transgender but somebody with a different sexual development or DSD (some people refer to them as intersex).
Add to that the Paris Olympics opening that had “drag queens” reimagining the scene in the “Last Supper” painting by Leonardo da Vinci and this Olympics could best be remembered for its “wokeness” and for hurting the sensitivities of Christians around the world. For me, however, this Olympics could mark the slow but sure embrace by the world of a kind of ideology that has destroyed the old notion of the world being populated by only two sexes, the male and the female, and a few and rare occurrences of people not in the confines of the binary concept in sexual development.
Sadly, the world as we know it is indeed changing because of our added knowledge, especially in science and technology. Information technology has ushered in changes in the distribution of information with traditional media being erased by social media. With the advent of robotics and artificial intelligence, social relations and the work setup have been affected. Robots are replacing workers in some fields.
But that could be the subject of another column. For the Philippines, the biggest personality in the Olympics is no longer Diaz but gymnast Carlos Yulo, who gave the country two golds, so far. I say “so far” because there are still Filipino athletes on a medal hunt, like EJ Obiena in pole vault, our women boxers and I don’t know the others. We will know the full extent of the hunt when the Paris Olympics closes a few days from now.
This was my question on the Youtube Vlog that I created: After that sorry opening, how will Paris close the Olympics. That, I would say, is an interesting point to monitor. Closing ceremonies are always memorable and I hope the organizers in France will not botch the closing ceremony with another “woke” display.
For the Philippines, however, this Olympics has been the most productive for us. Where before we could only talk of bronze and silver medals, we now have not only a solitary but multiple gold medals. That should make the Paris Olympics a memorable one for the country. As Tagalogs would say, “hindi tayo uuwi na luhaan.”