Private sector role in sports development

The 15th Asian Games opened last Friday in Doha, Qatar before some 50,000 spectators packed inside the Kalifa Stadium. It is the first time that an Arab nation is hosting the quadrennial games. The Associated Press (AP) described the opening ceremonies as a "spectacle of pyrotechnics, animatronics and boundless enthusiasm...as the people of Doha welcomed their region’s biggest ever sporting event."

The AP quoted David Atkins, creative director of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games opening ceremonies as having said "this (Doha) ceremony, in all seriousness, is far more ambitious and greater in scale and scope than the Sydney ceremony." Qatar, which has made no secret of its intentions to bid for the 2016 Olympics, spent billions of dollars for what is obviously part of a public relations effort to help manage perceptions about Arabs especially after 9/11.

The Asian Games were held in Manila in 1954 after its inaugural in New Delhi, India in 1951. The Doha edition of the Asiad attracted 10,000 athletes from 45 countries and states who will compete in 39 sports.

Philippine participation in the 2006 Asian Games comes close in the heels of the country’s winning the overall championship in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in Manila. The country had figured nowhere the top three spots in the overall standings in the years immediately preceding the Manila games and its phenomenal success in 2005 boosted the badly sagging morale of a dispirited nation.

Going into the Asiad therefore, the Philippine contingent is in a roll and hopes to bring its SEA Games momentum into Doha and thus nail a couple of gold medals in bowling and boxing.

The success of the Philippines in the SEA Games despite the shortage of resources once again underscores the role that the private sector should play in sports development in general and in elite or high level (or call it Olympic) sports.

There is nothing magical or complicated in the phenomenal performance of the Philippines in the Manila SEA Games. What simply happened was that resources were made available by companies like San Miguel Corp., Globe, Smart/PLDT and taipan Lucio Tan. Funds and/or commodities were made available by these conglomerates for the training and preparation of the athletes.

The role of the private sector in elite sports becomes significant if one is to consider a basic principle in good governance that public funds must be used for the greatest good or number. In sports development, the greatest number of beneficiaries will be found in mass based sports. Therefore, it follows that government or public funds must be used basically for encouraging mass participation and promoting good health through lifelong commitment to sports, recreation and fitness.

High level performance which is what elite sports is about, should ideally be the concern of the private sector because such high level sports provide the exposure that private companies normally would need for their products or services. No private company will provide huge sponsorship support for, say, a national physical fitness day festivities or a walkathon with plain citizens taking part.

Look however, at the number of sponsors that will outbid each other for the right to have their logos painted or stitched on the trunks of Manny Pacquiao even if the fight lasts for no more than 10 minutes.

The private sector will therefore play a key role in elite sports development and this was proven by our SEA Games success. And it is not just the big conglomerates and well known enterprises that have the capacity and the willingness to assist sports.

An outfit like Gold’s Gym is doing its share in elite sports development by providing free use of its facilities and training programs on power, strength and cardiovascular conditioning to national athletes now in Doha and those eyeing births in the 2007 SEA Games Philippine contingent.

To reward outstanding performance that brings honor to the country, Gold’s Gym, managed by Mark Dayrit (son of the late Vincent and Mila Dayrit of Miladay fame) and wife Mylene, grants free one-year membership to 2006 Asian Games and 2007 SEA Games gold medalists. Gold’s Gym makes available to national athletes its facilities in Glorietta Makati, Robinson’s Galleria in Ortigas Center and Ayala Alabang.

The tie-up between the Philippine Sports Commission and Gold’s Gym started in 2002. Since that time, Gold’s is proud to have two great athletes train in the club. Elvira Lorenzo and Rene Dio competed in the World Master Powerlifting Championships in Killeen, Texas last October. Dio captured the gold medal overall in his category, including the gold in squat and the bronze in deadlift. Lorenzo pocketed the bronze medal overall with a silver in deadlift (in the process setting a new Asian record) and bronze in benchpress.

Gold’s Gym extends help to other sports that government is hard pressed to support simply because other sports that are in the Olympics, Asiad and SEA Games are considered of higher priority. Gold’s Gym adopted the Philippine Hip-Hop team All Stars that won the world championship in the recently concluded World Hip-Hop Competition in Los Angeles in July. The team also snared the Open Italia Hip-Hop Championship held in Turin, Italy last June.

Ley Fernandez, director of the Philippine International Competitive Aerobics Foundation says that the World Sport Aerobic included hip-hop in its annual competitions thus making it part of sports aerobics (which is the fifth discipline of gymnastics). Hip-hop classes in fitness centers are designed to develop one’s cardio endurance according to Fernandez.

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Death came early to Cris Gabriel, 21-year-old son of Chito and Connie Gabriel of Ayala Alabang. Cris, who graduated cum laude from De La Salle University (DLSU) with a degree in Marketing in 2005, died early Friday (Dec. 1) morning from massive internal injuries after his car crashed into the barriers erected by the Philippine National Construction Co. along the viaduct in the south Luzon expressway. The PNCC is conducting repairs in the south-bound lane of the expressway. Cris was known at DLSU as an outstanding student achiever having won with two of his classmates the 2005 Agora Youth Awards of the Philippine Marketing Association. Questions are now being raised about the adequacy of PNCC’s early warning systems in the area.