As you read this piece, our country’s participation in the Beijing Games shall have been over. Since I am writing this is advance due to a trip to Manila for the 20th anniversary of Toyota Philippines and to go to the Philippine International Motorshow, I am hoping that Toni Rivero had ended our medal drought.
If not, then we’d have to work harder for the next Olympics and not spend time having to explain another debacle to our politicians, who want a piece of any action for the sake of grandstanding.
The worst part is these politicians dare ask what’s wrong with out sports development program. What is wrong is that those who don’t know much are meddling into the affairs of sports development.
The same goes to those people from the media, who think they have the cure for everything from the top of their heads. Please do some research or maybe get involved in sports before saying you have the solution to cure what ails Philippine sports.
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As a first step, maybe those who don’t know much should just shut up and let the experts handle it. Yes, our experts failed many times, but we must also take a closer look if their failures were caused by them or by others, who tried to meddle into what they were doing.
Next, those overstaying sports leaders must step down from their posts and hand over the reins to others, who can do a better job.
Since I don’t consider myself an expert, I’d stop here and do my little share for Philippine sports.
Yes, we can all do something for sports by starting with out children. Let’s get them interested and involved in sports, which is a very good start to help our country search for new talent.
If your child is already into sports, then support his or her efforts to become better and though we may not really like it, helping them become better sometimes means we have to distance ourselves from them during trainings so we don’t interfere with the coaches.
It does not mean we can’t be there, we can but we must know our proper place as parents.
There is really so much that we can do without having to be president of some sports organization.
Most of all, we must teach our children how to follow rules by following rules ourselves. Being disciplined will help them become better athletes.
The future looks bright if we just help clear the way for the next generation. I hope we can get more parents to commit to this so we can really say that an Olympic gold medal is not just a dream.
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MILESTONES: Tomorrow, I am among the secondary sponsors in the golden wedding of Mr. Emil and Mrs. Rose Rizada at the Sacred Heart Parish. Noy Emil is one of the living legends of the broadcast industry in Cebu.
Belated birthday greetings go to my classmates Ermin Paul Cabrera and Cristina Pacis-Ouano, who both turned a year older yesterday.
More power to all of you!