It was foretold and it happened

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

MONTHS before the commencement of the Beijing Olympic Games, the Chinese government said it will make the opening ceremonies the most glamorous, spectacular and expensive ever since 1896.

And it happened.

Weeks prior to the games, world scribes had been hinting that there’s a big probability the China team could dislodge the U.S. squad in terms of gold medal harvest.

They predicted and it happened. (As of this writing, August 22, with only two days of hostilities left, China has already accumulated 45 gold while U.S only has 27).

And days before the games, U.S. champion swimmer Michael Phelps promised to bag eight gold medals this time, surpassing the six he brought home from Athens four years ago.

He promised and it happened.

Phelps broke the record of seven pocketed by his compatriot Mark Spitz during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The eight gold medals were won with seven new world records and one new Olympic mark in tow.

Here in the national scene, prior to the games, Philippine Olympic Committee president Peping Cojuangco boasted we would win a medal or medals this time, if not gold at least silver or bronze.

Yes, that was assured but it did NOT happen.

Bokya na naman po tayo after three Olympics. And worse, it was a huge humiliation because our nationals were badly defeated. They all lost in their first matches, ditto with the latest and supposed to be our last medal hope, taekwondo player Marie Antoinette Rivero.

Yes, we know our athletes did their best, but their best was not good enough.

There’s something very wrong with our national sports development program which is why this has been happening to us for the last 12 years.

The last time we bagged a medal (silver) was during the 1996 Atlanta Games, courtesy of the diminutive boxer Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco. It was our second silver medal since we started to join this quadrennial meet in 1924. Our first silver medalist was Anthony Villanueva during the 1964 Tokyo Games and it was also in boxing.

We have so far harvested a measly total of 9 Olympic medals (7 bronze, 2 silver). But never the gold. Why?

As Philippine Daily Inquirer’s veteran sports columnist Recah Trinidad put it: “wrong system, wrong direction and the palakasan scheme, and to be blamed are these national sports officials who are obviously playing blind and incompetent.”

I agree with him. Pati sa sports ay napupulitika tayo.

There should be a total revamp, kick out these incompetent national sports leaders and there is an opportunity to do this when the National Sports Associations hold their elections in November.

Subukan naman natin yong mga ibang tao na may malaking knowledge din sa sports at baka sakaling mag-click ang kanilang nalalaman at sistema.

As for our athletes who competed in Beijing, yes, the Olympic adage “it’s not the triumph, but the try” holds true. But hindi naman puwedeng try and try na lang tayo.

We also need to win to justify the expense of the Filipino people on them and more importantly, for the sake of national pride and honor.

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

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