Princess of IMG

I rarely get a chance to discuss sports with women, but the few discussions that I had with those from the fairer gender, have produced a lot of surprises.

I've talked to football moms and they have their point. I've met with parents of swimmers, junior golfers, racers, tennis players and many more and they too have something to say.

The other day, I was with no less than the managing director for the Philippines of IMG, Princess Galura, and her views are definitely worth two thumbs up.

While I was interviewing her about the projects of IMG in the Philippines and how fruitful their partnership with JVC has been for the promotion of badminton, we reached the topic of family support for the athletes.

I never knew Princess, who I first met last year during the Cebu stop also of the JVC Regional Badminton Circuit, can get a little profound when discussing how the family plays a key role in the development of athletes.

She said that the next step for the country now that we have a badminton boom is to continue to development.

"If before we were negative five, now we are at positive two," she said referring to how badminton has moved forward in the past half decade. "However, the good countries are somewhere at 20," she added.

Princess said that after the Philippines had Amparo 'Weena' Lim in the Atlanta Olympics, we never had another one. While we do have the Assuncion siblings, Kenny and Kennyvic, who are ranked in the mixed doubles category of the world, there are not too many that have been identified as talents to follow their footsteps.

She believes that if we have players that can compete in the elite tournaments in the world, this would do a lot to the sport.

However, there is still that much-needed support that seems hard to find in our country. Of course, there are companies that are sponsoring tournaments, but what she was referring to are the sponsorships that can help athletes feed their families while they work hard on their skills.

"Our athlete can not be breadwinners," she told me. "Or else gutom ang pamilya nila."

I concur with that fully as I believe that the children of rich families do have a better chance of excelling in their chosen sport, because there are many things that their family can provide that the government can't.

This may not be popular, but it is a fact that we have to accept and as sports leaders, must also find a way to address.

Government does not have enough resources to help each and every kid become the best in the world. Even the families would not have enough resources to do so. With the proper partnership of government and private sector, plus the talent of the athlete, more can be achieved and Princess believes something should be done about this.

This takes me back to my belief in joint undertakings of the government and the private sector for sports development. Together we can do more, so let us find a common ground for this and not reasons why the two can't work together.

* * *

Antonio 'Boy Blue' Ocampo is in town together Mike Hudson for a three-day seminar on the rules of golf at the Cebu Country Club for clubs in the Visayas and Mindanao.

The seminar started yesterday and is a project of the Federation of Golf Clubs of the Philippines. This, according to Boy Blue, is a way of serving the members of the federation by updating key officials of the clubs about the latest in the rules.

This is supposed to run for four days, but they managed to put everything together in three and today, there would be an examination for the participants just to test their knowledge, but not exactly to accredit rulesmen, he told me.

I'll try to slip into the conference room today to listen some more. This is definitely a good time to learn.