Businessman-sportsman Dennis Uy, Presidential Adviser for Sports, is personally making it his personal crusade to help the country win its first ever gold medal in the Olympics.
“Sports help the youth get out of vices and contribute to nation building. I want to contribute to making a difference in our country,” said Uy on Tuesday during the groundbreaking ceremony for the New Clark City in the Capas, Tarlac.
Uy, who owns the Phoenix basketball squad in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), is primarily tasked to get the first ever gold medal for the Philippines, which has so far won three silver and seven bronze medals since it first competed in the 1924 Olympics in Paris.
“I hope that we get our first gold medal (in the Olympics). We’re a country with a huge population but we’re not there yet. I hope our fellow business people to contribute to this quest.”
To jumpstart his pursuit for gold, Uy formed the Siklab Atleta Foundation, aimed at raising funds from the private sector to help finance the need of the chosen athletes who have the strongest chance of winning in the Olympics.
So far, Uy has raised 1 billion pesos to finance the program.
“We have designed a special operation for the Olympics through the Siklab foundation and other corporate partners. We are focusing on 10 sports and 30 athletes who we think can qualify and win in the Olympics,” explained Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Butch Ramirez, who was chosen by Uy to manage the program with Siklab.
Ramirez said the 10 focused sports are weightlifting, judo, boxing, taekwondo, archery, windsurfing, surfing, cycling track and field and swimming.
The top athletes in the said sports will be given priorities in training and competitions abroad. The program already began with Hidilyn Diaz, who won a bronze and silver medal in the recent World Weightlifting Championship in the U.S.
“We seriously share this information, with Dennis, to the president (Duterte) that in his administration, we might be lucky to win gold in the Olympics,” said Ramirez. “But there has to be a unity among POC, PSC, NSAs and the Siklab Foundation.”