THE Philippines’ quest for its first Olympic gold medal, judging by the assessment of our sports leaders, is getting harder and harder and while millions of Filipinos will watch the extensive coverage of TV5, the Official Philippine Broadcaster of the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games and its many ancillary platforms programmed to provide the most formidable coverage of the games, the question uppermost in the minds of sports fans is—do we have a chance to win our first gold medal?
We’ve come tantalizingly close in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan and the 2006 Olympics in Atlanta.
Anthony Villanueva lost a painful battle for gold in a controversial loss to Russia’s Stanislav Stepashkin in 1964 and tiny Onyok Velasco dropped a heartbreaker to strongly built Daniel Petrov, in which the final tally of 19-6 in favor of the Bulgarian was hardly reflective of the closeness of the fight in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
So far, we have two worthy representatives who have qualified for the boxing competition in Rio 2016, while the president of the Alliance of Boxing Associations in the Philippines in Ricky Vargas and executive director Ed Picson are hopeful that at least two more male boxers and talented female boxer Nesthy Petecio, who was a victim of a bum decision in the last Asian Qualifying Championships in China, where she lost to five-time world champion Mary Kom of India, will make it in either of the two remaining qualifiers in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
Most Filipinos, banking on the history of being on the fringe of gold medal success in the Olympic Games, continue to hope for a breakthrough in Rio, especially if the international governing body AIBA—the Alliance of International Boxing Associations is able to somehow push through with the idea of its President, Dr. Wu Kuo Ching, to allow professional boxers to compete in Rio.
Now retired eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao has expressed his desire to compete in Rio should AIBA president Dr. Wu ching-kuo succeed in his desire to have professionals participate for the first time in the Olympics and in fact met with the ring icon in Doha, Qatar and invited him to compete. He offered Pacquiao a wild card entry which would seed him directly into the actual competition without having to go through any of the qualifying tournaments.
But while the ABAP has reserved a slot for Pacquiao in the event Dr. Wu is successful in his efforts to have the AIBA constitution amended in a special congress later this month to allow pros to compete in the Olympics and the International Olympic Committee gives its blessings to the plan, some of our top sports officials believe it’s an uphill battle.
Philippine Olympic Committee first vice president Joey Romasanta, in answer to a question by The Standard at the recent press conference hosted by TV 5, said: “I don’t know how AIBA is going to do it because the qualifying rules were set two years ago and the current group of qualifiers will qualify under those rules. But then again, AIBA is trying its best to make boxing as interesting as possible, but I really don’t know how they are going to do it in terms of pro boxers qualifying.”
Romasanta hopes that in boxing, the quest for gold succeeds.
“Our boxers have trained long and hard they have been fully supported by ABAP president Ricky Vargas,” he said.
The boxers trained at the famed ALA Gym in Cebu, a hotbed of boxing, even as he expressed the hope that the country can have more boxers both male and female qualify in the last two events in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
ABAP executive director Ed Picson said that the Dodong Donaire, the father/trainer of five-division world champion Nonito Donaire, has agreed to help train the boxers and actually spent three days with them at the ALA Gym.
“I am very optimistic about the chances of Nesthy Petecio,” said Picson, an opinion shared by Dodong Donaire and Edmund Villamor, ALA’s trainer of the longest-reigning Filipino world champion, WBO light flyweight king Donnie Nietes.
Petecio will be among three female boxers competing in the World Women’s Championships, which begin on May 19. Petecio, Josie Gabuco and Irish Magno are set to leave on the 16th.
Longtime IOC representative Frank Elizalde made it clear he is not against professionals participating in the Olympics.
“But they (other sports) compete in the course of the entire year, while in boxing there is a total division between amateurs and pros in boxing,” said Elizalde, who has since relinquished his position, which has seen the charming and articulate Mikee Cojuangco Jaworski, wife of Dodot Jaworski, son of Philippine basketball icon Robert Jaworski and daughter of POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco. succeed him.
“This is like changing the rules in the middle of the game. You have to get the pros into it when you have some poor guy trying to qualify by participating in some many tournaments etc. Then all of a sudden, they throw a world champ in there. It’s like going to a party. I can see them changing the rules and setting up a tournament for qualification in theTokyo Olympics in 2020. Manny will be barred because of his age because the age limit is 40 and he will be over 40 at the time of the Tokyo Olympics,” he said.
Elizalde, like most Filipinos said: “I’d love to have him there. Dr. Wu would love to have him there. Let him figure it out.”
Cojuangco Jaworski provided a different and refreshing insight into the issue of an Olympic gold, where most Filipinos are convinced that boxing gives us the best chance.
When we referred to her stunning—and unexpected gold-medal victory in the final event in the equestrian competition at the 2002 Asian Games, when “nobody gave us a chance,” Mikee told The Standard: “It really was a God-given moment. As an athlete we know how hard we work towards a gold. We work tirelessly, sacrificing a lot of things when we are competing. We bring everything—everything else is a blessing. Is it my time? Am I doing and giving enough? Is that enough to win the prize? Our athletes who have qualified will taste this kind of victory. We try to support them to get to the standard that they can also achieve victory in the Olympics. I am praying for them to have this kind of success. Definitely, we hope we have many more God-given moments in Rio.”
To Mikee, “no matter how dedicated and serious you are as an athlete, what really matters is the attitude behind it which is what we are trying to spread. What I can say is that as human beings we always have to strive to get better and better. For all our athletes, who have already qualified for the Olympics, we ask them to elevate their game at this point because we don’t want to have an attitude of going into the Olympics saying we have arrived here so we are okay. That’s not the point. That is why we try to give a lot of importance to the athletes. That’s why we are here to try to get everybody excited about the Olympic Games. A lot of the performance will come from the support that we show them and give them.”
She also believes that “to specify and say a gold medal may come from this specific sport (in reference to boxing), in my very own personal experience would be unfair because no one would have ever thought of me as a possible gold medalist in the Asian Games and yet it came. Even I was surprised but it happened. We want our athletes on their journey to Rio with that mindset and in their hearts knowing that if they give their all, they can be the first Filipino gold medalist.”
To the head of TV 5 Sports, the talented and hard-working Patricia Bermudez Hizon, she and her colleagues inspired by the leadership of the eminent businessman-sportsman and legendary supporter of Philippine sports Manny Pangilinan, feel “absolutely honored to be the Olympic network.”
“We will focus on the value of sports, carrying the country’s colors. The idea is to teach values of pushing sports in the service of humanity,” Hizon said, pointing out that “when there is so much confusion in the world and sometimes violence that happens in different corners of the world, you have to push the values of Olympism. We are also set to inspire the nation to support our athletes who will be fighting for that elusive gold medal. Our commitment shows value of sports as part of nation building, which has been a constant theme of Manny Pangilinan.”
Bermudez Hizon announced there will be 16 hours of coverage on free TV alone, daily, alongside Aksiyon TV and Cignal, whose vast reach will bring the Olympic telecast to the farthest corners of our country.
She cited Mikee Cojuangco Jaworski, who “has helped us educate people because our role is not just to cover the games but to make our people watch and learn and expand their knowledge about the athletes and their mission to reach out to all corners of the country…in teaching the values of Olympism, informing people about our athletes, the Olympics and the games and to unify the country behind the quest for gold.”
However, that quest is becoming increasingly more difficult to accomplish as Romasanta pointed out.
“What we have experienced is, it’s getting more difficult to make it to the Olympics. The bar is so high. We need to keep up with the developments. We hope to have more than 11 qualifiers. We are very happy and surprised to have new faces such as those in table tennis and taekwondo. Everybody was surprised compared to how it was before,” Romasanta said.
Kirstie Alora, who captured a silver medal at the recent Asian Taekwondo Championships and qualified for the Olympics in the 67-kilogram category, is quietly confident of at least winning a medal in Rio.
The 26-year-old, who looks much younger said while wining a gold medal in Rio “is most difficult, her target is to win a medal.
“I’m not going for the sake of going to the Olympics, so I am targeting a medal,” Alora said. “The most competitive opponents are from South Korea and China although in the last Olympics, (London 2012) the gold medal winner in my weight category was from Serbia.”
Her dedication is translated into training three times a day while her key to winning a medal is “to focus in training more on speed and stamina because this is what I need because of my height my opponents have an advantage. ”
Her game-plan is simple. “If I engage at once then it’s a good chance to earn a point. This is my first time. I’ll try my best. I don’t know whether this will be my last or I’ll have a second chance. I’m 26 years old but I’m trying to get a medal where there are, according to my coaches, 16 entries in my category .”
Alora is grateful for the support from the Philippine Sports Commission, the Philippine Olympic Committee, her National Sports Association, PLDT and Smart, which are two of the major sponsors of the Olympic coverage.
An even bigger surprise was the achievement of UAAP table tennis standout Ian “Yan Yan” Lariba of La Salle, who earned what was described as “a golden ticket” to Rio when she nailed the last slot in the Asia Olympic Qualifiers in Hong Kong and wrote her name into the history of Philippine Olympic competition as the very first Filipino Olympian in table tennis. uanoom
“Qualifying for the Olympics is really a privilege and an honor which is slowly sinking in,” said the 22-year-old, who clinched the final Olympic slot in a do-or-die match against Indonesia’s Lilis Indriani, winning handily in straight sets 11-6, 11-2, 11-8 and 11-5.”
“It’s all about attitude and character, particularly in training. All the victories and trophies will not come if you do not value a good work ethic,” Lariba said. “You simply have to demonstrate determination and perseverance. “
Lariba welcomes this unique opportunity to show the world that in table tennis, the Philippines “can be competitive.”
Unquestionably, the Olympic fever will resonate when the FIBA Qualifying tournament in basketball opens at the Mall of Asia Arena because no matter what the disadvantages in height and heft, the innate skill and fighting heart of the Filipino have seen success in recent years under a well-thought-out and meticulously planned development program under the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, under its president in Pangilinan and hard-working executive director Sonny Barrios, the former PBA Commissioner.
“We are just another ambitious team that never quite made it since the 1972 Munich Olympics,” said Elizalde, who made it clear that “in recent years we seem to be making a comeback. We have some problems with some players not being eligible but I think though, we have a good program. I think we can put up a competitive team. I’m very happy we gained one of the 3 qualifying slots for the final qualifier to make it to the Olympics. It gives you some kind of an edge.”
This is like the last FIBA Asia World Cup qualifiers held in Manila, where the Gilas Pilipinas team, led by coach Chot Reys, answered the collective cry of a nation and made it to the World Cup in Spain by finishing second to mighty Iran in a fiercely competitive tournament, where even China failed to make it.
“The biggest problem is France,” said Elizalde of the French, who are rated No. 3 in the world rankings of FIBA, behind the United States and Spain and have several NBA players in their roster.
But Elizalde, like millions of Filipinos believes that “if we can get by France we have a shot at qualifying, who knows? Should we make it to the Rio Olympics, it will be very hard but at least against other Asian and South American teams we can make it. I see things positively. We are on the right track. Just to make it to the Olympics—good luck to our boys. We will put up an honorable and competitive team.”
TV 5 is the host broadcaster for the qualifying tournament and according to Bermudez Hizon, it also means “we are actually the ones who are producing and sending that feed to the rest of the world. With MVP’s vision of helping sports particularly basketball we are doing our best to support our Gilas national team.”
Sienna Olaso, who is in charge of the Cignal TV Olympic and FIBA qualifiers programming, enumerated details of the telecast layout.
For the Olympics, Cignal will be the official pay-per-view broadcaster on two channels.
Hyper and /Hyper HD will, according to Olaso, “carry basketball and volleyball while two other channels Rio 1 will telecast athletics and aquatic sports and Rio 2, boxing, wrestling and other contact sports.”
“Cignal has a very affordable prepaid, postpaid offer for as low as P100 load,” said Olaso. “It’s already a big task to give subscribers fresh news.”
This will be done by a production team, headed by one of the best television directors and producers in Asia, Pedrito “Dong” Capinpuyan who, we gather, will be assisted by the widely experienced Edgar Reyes, who for years was part of the NBN 4 team that covered several Olympic, Asian and Southeast Asian Games.
As Cojuangco Jaworski said, we hope the Philippines will enjoy more God-given moments. It is something Filipinos devoutly wish for.