Four years to Brazil

The Philippines has participated in 19 Olympic Games. It has produced 9 Olympic medals – 2 silvers and seven bronzes. Our country has the distinction of having the most Olympic appearances with the most Olympic medals, without the gold. When we will get medal again is still a mystery.

The costly excursion of our Olympic delegation to London has finally ended. This exercise in futility has been going on for the past 5 stagings of this quadrennial sporting event. Our contingent will soon land on Manila’s still-damp-from-flood soils not with the spoils, but as the spoils of war. Annihilated and obliterated.

Southeast Asian neighbours Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong medalled in their quests. Traditional Asian powerhouses China, Japan and South Korea flexed their muscles and produced in their gold hunt.

Simultaneous with the receding floodwaters, we will be hearing piles of insane bullcrap from the heads of our National Sporting Agencies blaming everyone but themselves related to the debacle of the London misadventure.

Then they will be flapping their tongues about the lack of financial resources. Yeah, right. Ethiopia produced gold, silver and some bronze medals where majority of their population have experienced famine and are emaciated. North Korea has four golds while its people, except for that guy called Kim and his ilk, are going hungry. Iran also delivered four golds while their children and elders back home dodge bullets and improvised explosive devices on a daily basis.

Don’t give us that ridiculous excuse of monetary insufficiency when we have members of both the Senate and Congress who are richer than our natural resources and think they are more powerful than God. Hello RH Bill.

Let us not be surprised if some wise guy in congress or senate would demand an inquiry on the Olympic dream that has became a constant nightmare, considering that first week of October will be the filing of candidacy. It’s free media mileage for these people at the expense of the flooded citizenry. Then what? As always, nothing concrete comes up. Just pogi points.

I’m sure there are individuals and entities that are more than willing to support our athletes. What prevents them from doing so are a good number of snakes and crocodiles in suits and barongs who happen to be among the high and the mighty of our sporting associations. It’s like giving assistance to indigents in luxury SUV’s.

We pride ourselves in at least four boxing world champions yet we can only send one boxer to London? This sport is our most legitimate shot at Olympic glory but we failed to take advantage of our abundant talents. Likewise the other contact sports like taekwando and karate were not represented, which could also be medal potentials. These don’t need height and heft (well, maybe judo).Our ancestors were warriors – Lapulapu, Leon Kilat, Dagohoy, Andres Bonifacio, Gabriela Silang and the like – hence, most of us are natural born fighters.   Why don’t we make use of these bloodlines?

As to endurance sports like long distance running and cycling, with the proper training, nutrition and equipment, we can match up with the rest of Asia and the world. If some of us can go 12 hours or more with mah-jong and tong-its, drink alcoholic beverages till the break of dawn and still have a clear head to log in to Facebook, then we can excel in endurance-related events.

Because of constant power struggles, our athletes have suffered. We have the resources and the materials, we just didn’t put the right people on the job. It’s high time to bring back lost glory and rise from the compost pit of mediocrity.

We have four years to prepare till Brazil 2016. Meanwhile, let us regain our lofty status at the SEA Games. Our butts have become calloused with the constant whipping from our Southeast Asian neighbors. 

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