Taking small steps toward their big dreams

Small they may still be but boy, they do have big dreams. At an early age, the top performers at the recent Milo Little Olympics NCR Games already look well ahead to the bigger stage — the Olympics and major international tournaments.

“I want to be an Olympian like my idol, Toni Rivero,” declares eight-year-old Alexa Rabino of the National Christian Life College, the Most Outstanding Athlete (MOA) for taekwondo in the grade school division.

Barely three years into the Korean-born martial art but already a veteran of a number of tournaments, Alexa knows what it takes to get to the Olympics: “Train hard, persevere, and maintain discipline, self-confidence. and patience.”

This big-time dream is shared by Alexa’s fellow MOA awardees like Rory Tapang of Mater Carmeli School (swimming, high school division), who stresses the importance of giving it her all in training and competition, and Christian San Andres of Ateneo (lawn tennis, elementary), who vows never to give up.

Through all this, their proud parents are there to provide all-out support.

Dr. Cathy Lim, mom of grade school MOA for badminton Cassandra, relates she does not hold clinics every time her 12-year-old daughter is competing. “I make sure I personally cheer for her and one time, I even carried her luggage and washed her clothes when she played at the Palarong Pambansa in Koronadal last year.”

Inch by inch, some of the MOAs are taking the next step towards their goals. Cassandra is set to make her international debut in a forthcoming ASEAN badminton tournament in Jakarta while two-time high school MOA for athletics Jill Boragay of the Sisters of Mary School Girls Town is raring to strut her stuff in the collegiate league.

Nurturing these dreams and helping the little champions realize them are, in essence, what makes the Milo Little Olympics.

According to Milo sports events executive Andrew Neri, “Our aim is to be the children’s partner in pursuing their dreams to become future champions. With the Milo Little Olympics, we hope they learn a lot in sports as well as in character formation, absorbing values they’ll need in life such as discipline, perseverance, teamwork, and hard work.”

The little champions were feted recently with Neri and Marikina City Mayor Marides Fernando handing out the trophies. Mayor Fernando expressed hope “this is just the start of a very bright career for our most outstanding athletes.”