It happened last October; it was the national swimming tryouts organized by the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association (PASA) to determine who would represent the country in the 23rd SEA Games.
The 100-meter freestyle for women tryouts was about to begin, the swimmers were on the starting block, the official fired the signal, and they were off. The swimmer who finished first was Maria Liza Danila, with a time of 59.69 seconds. She also landed first place in the other four events she competed in.
Not bad, people might say. But here’s the catch. She was the only locally-trained swimmer during the tryouts, beating the other national swimmers in the heats who trained in China for three months.
No one foresaw an outcome like this. A former Olympian who competed in Sydney in 2000 and in four other SEA Games, Liza was surprised with her sweep, "I was only after getting my best time." And she also managed to qualify in the free-style events but her specialty is backstroke.
I was oblivious to the whole thing for a time; I didn’t even know she was to be part of the tryouts. But I had a privilege to train alongside Liza for quite sometime since we were under one coach, Anthony Lozada. Though our workouts are the exact opposite (mine’s like playing in a kiddy pool compared to what she’s doing), I get to watch her, how she prepares for the high-caliber competitions. Some people thought she was under some "miracle program." In fact, there was really nothing special about how she was trained – fancy programs won’t produce a champion.
The formula relies on good old-fashioned coaching (especially if the coach is open to new ideas), determination, discipline and very good motivation. "At first, I wasn’t that confident with my programs," coach Anthony said. But he was able to improve his sporting programs, thanks to insights of some Olympic coaches from the US, Russia, Germany and Australia. "I learned from the new information the coaches shared with me and I was able to combine and develop new programs," coach Anthony added. This supports the fact that our athletes do not really need to train abroad because we have dedicated and skilled people here.
For Liza, even if she is focused in preparing for the SEA Games, her life does not revolve around the pool. Despite her busy and rigorous schedule, she’s also a graduating student at the University of Perpetual Help Biñan, which has been very supportive of her even if they do not have a swimming team. She is also running for academic scholarship. How she is able to balance both is no easy task. There are days when she’s already in the pool at 5 a.m. and is at class by 7:30 am.
While some of her fellow athletes had to take a leave from schooling, she explains with a sigh of relief, that her school keeps her mind off the anxiety and jitters athletes have to face. "During the 2003 SEA Games, I had to stop school, so the only thing that was on my mind was swimming, and I felt unproductive," she said.
This young lady has been through a lot the past months. She was supposed to qualify for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens but because of some hindrances in the sports community she was not able to. If not for the lack of government support, she could’ve been much stronger if she was able to participate in more competitions abroad.
It has been a long time since the Philippines produced a gold medal by a locally trained swimmer. Even during the 1991 SEA Games, which was also hosted by the Philippines, the gold medalists were all foreign-trained. Another problem is that some of our sports officials want the easy way out by being complacent and just relying on the foreign-trained swimmers to reap the gold, overlooking the locally trained ones. "I just want to prove that our program really works," Liza added.
For some, these setbacks would mark as the end of their career, but this did not dampen her spirits. As of press time with only a week to go before the SEA Games, despite the drawbacks, she is in top fighting form, determined to get the gold, doing everything in her power to train hard.
In swimming, the athletes that can give the Philippines the greatest jitters are from Singapore and Thailand. But we have a strong chance to grab the gold, especially from home-grown Liza. All we need to do is just to hope and pray really hard.
But with only a day left before the opening of the 23rd SEA Games, may this piece be an eye-opener that our athletes need all the supports they can get. Thanks to these people, we Pinoys are not really losers after all.