EDITORIAL - It's the gold, stupid

Peping Cojuangco is probably the biggest optimist there is. Commenting on the Philippines dismal 7th place finish in the Southeast Asian Games, its lowest since joining in 1977, the head of Philippine Olympic Committee said the country actually did very well.

There is a big difference, however, between simply looking up and actually making the summit. And not even an entire country's collective optimism will win it any medals if its athletes are simply not good enough to win against the competition.

A good indicator of why the Philippines fell through the rankings is Cojuangco's own assessment of our performance. According to Cojuangco, for such a small contingent of 208 athletes to bring home 101 medals is quite an achievement.

Cojuangco misses the point by a mile. It is quite one thing to be simply optimistic and another to be mentally dishonest by not mentioning the crucial fact that of the 101 medals the Philippines won, only 29 are actually gold, in an undertaking where only the gold truly matters.

Cojuangco conveniently forgets to mention that the golds are the main indicators of winning, which is precisely why the overall standings are based on the gold numbers and not on the total number of medals won. A country can win a thousand medals, but if it does not win any gold, its name will always be in the cellar.

Indonesia won a total of 260 medals but managed only 4th place because it only had 65 golds, behind the 73 golds of third-placer Vietnam which had fewer total medals at 245, and farther back from host Myanmar at second, which had 86 golds but with even fewer total medals at 233.

So, if the Cojuangco principle is therefore to be content with just acquiring as many medals as we can and never mind if they are not the golds of the real winners, then it is no wonder that we are where we are right now in sports.

Cojuangco should be told that it is the gold that really counts as far as the standing of our country is concerned. Any other medal is simply a matter of personal pride and achievement for the athlete. Unless Cojuangco reorients his perspective in this regard, or perhaps resign, Philippine sports will stay ho-hum.