SEAG's Eric the Great

MANILA, Philippines -The image was clear on Eric Buhain’s mind even before he plunged into the pool of Rizal Memorial in the 1991 SEA Games: Him walking towards the podium and raising his finger one by one counting his gold medal harvest.

“Every night while I was training, I was imagining lifting my finger for every event that I won and standing at the podium. I kept rehearsing this scene on my mind,” said swim great Buhain, the former PSC and GAB chairman who has since “revived” his athletic career via triathlon.

One hand was not enough for Buhain’s count that time for he copped an unprecedented six gold medals en route to winning the Best Male Athlete of the SEA Games plum for the second straight time.

Twenty years later, the image was still lifelike that Buhain could rattle off the events he conquered sans Google: 400m IM, 200m fly, 200m IM, 100m breast, 100m fly, and relay medley.

“It was like a dream come true. It was a very, very high moment for me. I made a lot of people happy; I remember the Rizal Memorial rocking with a lot of people cheering for me,” he said.

The six-gold romp nearly did not materialize. Buhain recalled that after tucking up a Finance degree from La Salle-Philadelphia in 1991, a job offer in the US was up. He only acceded to the POC’s request to continue swimming after it agreed to send him to training camp at the highly touted University of South California.

Following his SEAG success, 1988 Seoul Games campaigner Buhain made his second Olympic appearance in Barcelona.

“That (1992) was the year of the first Dream Team. It felt like even if they were super, super, superstars, we’re just the same when it comes to the Olympics; whatever they can get, we can also get,” he said.

“Making the Olympics was really the highlight of my swimming career, especially in ‘88. It was a fulfillment of a childhood promise for me and my parents. At the age of nine, when I was losing even to girls, my father asked me to choose if I want to swim in the Palaro or swim all the way to the Olympics. I chose the Olympics,” he added.

Good choice.

Buhain’s big shoes were filled years later by Miguel Molina, who was adjudged Best Male Athlete of the 2007 SEAG in Thailand. A two-time Olympian, Molina topped the 200m breast, 200m IM, and 400m IM and won a fourth gold in the 4x100 medley.

Molina called it a day after his 2010 Asian Games stint, leaving Philippine swimming hunting for its next anchor, just like what happened when Buhain retired in 1993.