Sustainable sports development

Our country’s failure to win a medal in the Beijing Olympics has become the butt of jokes for many.

You must have heard disc jockeys and even radio commentators say their piece about how badly we are doing in the Olympics or maybe you have heard suggestions of events where we could probably stand out.

We Filipinos are known to laugh at our miseries, and our lack of a medal is one of those that we are taking in stride.

While this may be a laughing matter to many, by now this should already open our eyes to where we have failed. 

We still have a chance to win a medal or two as our taekwondo jins are yet to see action, but many have already written them off this early, which is not exactly good for their morale.

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Over lunch yesterday with fellow members of the Sportswriters Association of Cebu and Hapee’s Jack Huang with his son Jeremy of Richmedia, we talked about a lot of things related to our favorite subject – sports.

Our conversation went on after lunch as I joined Jack, basketball coach Mark Tallo and one of my fellow sporting dads Rico Navarro for a cup of coffee.

Rico, who is one of those parents, who really take action for honest to goodness sports development talked about his efforts for basketball, which is also what Jack and Mark are doing through the Hapee Basketball Academy.

If there was one word that stood out in our conversation, it was sustainability.  Yes, we can never succeed in sports unless we implement programs that are sustainable and most importantly, such is also sustained.

If you are still asking how come we don’t have an Olympic medal, it is because we don’t really have a sustainable sports development that would take us to our goal.

We are not lacking in talent and brains to come up with such programs, what we lack are leaders with a strong political will to make them happen.

If we recreate everything that the previous officials have started so that they cannot claim credit for what we have done, where is true development there?

If the Gintong Alay Program led by Michael Keon during the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos was sustained even after the fall of the strongman, maybe we’d have achieved our dream of winning gold two or three Olympics ago.

The problem of sustainable programs is not however limited to sports, we see these anywhere around the country.  Look at the situation in some parts of Mindanao now.

Would we have achieved peace if the deal with the MILF was signed?  I doubt that and I hope our government troops would sustain their efforts against the bandits, who are wrecking havoc in the Land of Promise.

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MILESTONES: My baby sister, Naika Q. Addington, turned 31 years old last Monday.  Now very pregnant with her third child, I wish my sister all the best.

Belated birthday greetings also go to Dr. Conrado Salonga, Jr., who celebrated his birthday yesterday.

More power to both of you!