Olympic year

A prosperous New Year to all!

We welcome 2008 again with a lot of hope for good things to come.

The Beijing Olympics is just over 200 days away and hopefully our country will get that coveted Olympic gold medal.

I’ve always been an optimist and always look at things from the bright side, but I am worried about our preparations for the Beijing Games since there isn’t much talk about it yet.

Maybe they are just keeping a low profile hoping to spring surprises come the Olympics.

After our unceremonious exit from boxing in the recent Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) in Thailand where we accused the hosts of rigging the results, do you think the judges would be kind enough to give our pugs the points they deserve in Beijing?

Of course, I am not saying that the accusations of the Philippine team were baseless.  I am just reiterating that it was the wrong way to send our message.

I believe that our best chance for an Olympic gold would come from the Oriental Martial Arts – karatedo, judo, taekwondo.

To be more specific, I believe that our country’s first official Olympic gold would come from the taekwondo jins.

I hope it will happen this year.

* * *

Since 2008 is an Olympic year, I also expect a lot of sporting events in relation to the staging of the quadrennial international sports meet.

With so many companies wanting to ride the Olympics bandwagon, there will be a lot of activities that would be held in relation to sports.

What I however hope to see would be events that are not just for mere noise, but also to push the quality of our athletes.

The main reason why we haven’t won a gold medal in the Olympics yet is that we’ve been successful in making noise, but forgot about the other essentials.

The best part about Olympic years, aside from the extra day since it also falls on leap years, is that there is always an increased awareness for sports among the people.

I wish our sports leaders would use this chance also to get more people to have a more active lifestyle.

* * *

I had a chance to talk with Dr. Tony San Juan in a less formal set-up when by chance we met at a coffee shop at the Paseo San Ramon in Banawa.

Tony told me about his continued interest to help our athletes get proper attention in case on injuries.  As he is one of the primary sports medicine practitioners in Cebu, he is offering to the city and provincial governments his expertise to help our athletes particularly those from public schools.

This is definitely one of the right things that we should do for sports in Cebu and I have promised Tony my all out support for this effort.

With proper handling of injuries and with proper nutrition, we would help develop better athletes. 

We have to do this now and not wait for many more years before we act.