Put money where mouth is
Before the Beijing Olympics began, several sports benefactors pledged to reward the country’s first gold medalist with a cash bonanza amounting to at least P15 Million.
Other patrons promised a bundle in kind.
The haul was enough to pump up the adrenaline of every athlete in the
If Toni Rivero fails to deliver a gold tomorrow, the patrons end up keeping their cash. The athletes come home empty-handed and stay home empty-handed.
There’s no doubt the benefactors were sincere in offering their millions. Who would question the sincerity of a Manny Pacquiao, for instance? It wasn’t as if the patrons just played the odds, dangling a tidy fortune while realizing the improbability of any athlete hitting paydirt. If they were insincere, they should be exposed for their gambit of generating free publicity mileage at the expense of underachieving athletes.
Now that the outlook for gold is dimming, perhaps the patrons should come out in support of the Filipino athlete and give their millions just the same not as a reward but as seed money for the development of future medalists. That’s putting money where your mouth is.
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Anyway, the patrons are prepared to give up their millions for the first Filipino Olympic gold medalist. And since that’s not happening in
The question is – if the money is donated, to whom should it be entrusted? Should it be directly given to a National Sports Association (NSA)? Should it be coursed through the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) or the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC)?
Perhaps, it should go straight to the NSAs care of the POC but no withdrawal may be made unless for a specific development purpose. An NSA must submit a justifiable reason for the POC to approve a release of any amount. Since only P15 Million is involved, the POC should judiciously allocate the funds according to a long-term plan to identify, develop and promote elite athletes from “niche” sports in coordination with the PSC. Another option is for the POC to use the funds for its annual Philippine Olympic Festival which has led to the discovery of outstanding prospects.
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Related to this issue,
“Do our athletes really have a chance to bring home the bacon? Are the cash incentives enough to push our athletes to give all they’ve got and hope to snatch a gold medal? To my mind, the answer is no.
“The Olympics is such a tough field where the world’s best athletes, who are offered much bigger incentives in their countries, compete. This is not the SEA Games where we can dominate the opposition in our favorite events. Even the Asian Games golds have become scarce for us. I do not downplay the capabilities of Filipino athletes because we have seen some dominate their respective events like Pacquiao in boxing, bowler Nepomuceno and billiards masters Reyes and Bustamante, Alcano and Pagulayan. But they are rare, exceptional athletes who, I believe, are God’s gifts to Philippine sports.
“In my opinion, the cash pledges should have come out during the athletes’ preparation stage where funds were badly needed (for training and exposure abroad) and thus avoid being used for publicity gimmicks and political ends. Surely, our athletes have the will to win and give their best shot for our country. But will alone does not guarantee success. Preparation is crucial as athletes who prepare well have more chances of winning.
“As a sports advocate myself, I believe it is necessary to establish as soon as possible the groundwork that is meaningful for our athletes. An initiative that will fund the athletes’ preparation for the 2012 London Olympics should be immediately put in place. The set-up should welcome both big and small benefactors who are sincere in helping out our athletes – right from the start and where money will not appear to be in the form of incentive but rather as a basic and realistic tool in preparing our athletes to achieve their goals.”
Inton makes good sense.
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