Phelps: Great Haul of China

By Al S. Mendoza

TAEKWONDO jins Thsomlee Go and Tonette Rivero have yet to compete in the Olympics when I wrote this.

I prayed they won to end our Olympic medal-drought that began in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

We also emerged zero in the 2004 Athens Olympics after we won a silver in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics through Onyok Velasco.

All our last three Olympic medals came in boxing. Before Onyok’s 1996 silver, we garnered a bronze in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics through Roel Velasco (Onyok’s brother) and in the 1988 Seoul Olympics through Leopoldo Serrantes.

It was a nosedive after 1996 as fate, somehow, had been unkind to us.

While we do believe that the power of prayer can make miracles happen, hard work is still a key factor in every success. Include hope-hope in Divine intervention.

With a victory by either Go or Rivero or even both-we’d be the happiest souls marching today, August 24, in the closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics.

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But to deviate from the Philippine Olympic performance or is it non-performance?

What could be more memorable today in the Olympic closing ceremonies than Michael Phelps waving his record eight medals to an adoring world that will be mesmerized forever by the American’s superhuman performance in swimming?

I think Phelps’ feat will never be surpassed-even equaled.

In 112 years since the modern Olympiad in 1896, no athlete has ever won eight gold medals in one Olympiad.

I like what Phelps said when asked about winning his eighth gold medal that broke the seven gold medals won by Mark Spitz in the 1972 Munich Olympics.

“I don’t know what to say and all I want to do now is hug my Mom,” he said, waving goodbye to reporters and next wading through a phalanx of photographers to get to the stands where his mother was seated, crying inconsolably beside Michael’s two sisters, Hilary and Whitney.

What Phelps did in Beijing was, simply, the Great Haul of China.

For, beside his historic eight gold medals in a single Olympics, Phelps also swam for a total of 14 gold medals in two Olympiads – adding his six gold medals in Athens four years ago.

If you think his eight gold medals was the stuff legends are made of, his total of 14 gold medals was the kind that makes one not part of Planet Earth.

“I don’t know how I did it, but I guess it was pure imagination that did it,” Phelps said.

The Olympics began in 776 B.C. in Mt. Olympus, Greece, with a single event-the marathon. Added later were archery, the javelin throw and other running events.

The Games, now held every four years, were scrapped by the Roman Emperor, Philippus, in 998 A.D. after declaring the Olympiad as the work of pagans. Emperor Philippus was a Christian.

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Phenom Phelps’ 14 gold medals broke by five the most number of gold medals previously won by any athlete since a French named Count Piere de Coubertin revived the Olympics 112 years ago, after the Games had been absent for nearly 1,500 years.

On the 29th edition of the Games since the Olympics’ revival in 1896, Phelps established himself the greatest Olympian ever.

Only a fish that can talk-say, a man-dolphin?-can sink Phelps’ eight golds in one Olympics and Phelps’ all-time harvest of 14 golds in two Olympiads.

And to think that Phelps finished with not a single medal to his name in his Olympic debut in Sydney in 2000.

Talk about perseverance, hard work and determination.

And, yes, imagination.

(Readers may reach columnist at also147@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/general-admission/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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