Olympian

The Philippine team’s performance at the Beijing Olympics was, well, dismal.

Once upon a time, we were a sports power in the region. We may have never netted an Olympic gold, but our athletes of yore were contenders. They brought home silvers and bronzes.

One upon a time, the Philippine contingent in international sports competition were always robust. We competed in a wide range of disciplines. We had gymnasts and boxers, runners and swimmers. Our basketball team was looked up to with respect.

Today, we have only a handful of athletes capable of passing the qualifiers. Our last Olympic delegation was miniscule. We had to bring in a professional boxer to carry the flag. There were few Filipinos in the referees’ pool — even as we bring in more officials than athletes as a matter of habit.

Not only was our Olympic delegation miniscule relative to our population size, it was also a lightweight team. Our athletes were eliminated in the early going. Even a bronze medal seemed a distant dream.

From the onset, there was little enthusiasm for our team. Few businessmen participated in supporting our athletes. The selection process was thin. The logistics even thinner.

The dismal performance our team turned in was almost expected. As a consequence, there was little public indignation over our pathetic participation in the Olympics.

The public apathy towards our athletic program is not healthy. The sad state of our sports infrastructure is allowed to persist by benign neglect. Our expectations are lowered by the day. Our self-esteem as a nation withers.

No one has taken Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose ‘Peping’ Cojuangco to task for the miserable performance of our team. It is as if we have all become resigned to a future of mediocrity in athletics.

From sources in the sports community, we now hear horror stories about the complete breakdown of leadership in that sector. There has hardly been coordination among the national sports associations. Little effort has been invested in raising resources to train our athletes. There is nothing that could even distantly resemble a comprehensive national search for talent in athletics. We have lost what was once a broad, grassroots-based national sports program.

But then, no one has ever accused Peping Cojuangco of having an excessive work ethic.

The man hardly communicated with the various sports associations. He offered little support and encouragement. He raised few logistics. He did not network the business community to gather potential patrons for the various athletic disciplines.

Next month, the national sports associations will choose between Cojuangco and Arturo Macapagal. Both are aspiring to be president of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).

Working for the POC is, to be sure, a thankless job. It will require investment of time and, more important, some amount of passion to lift up Philippine sports from purgatory.

Cojuangco has served his term as best he can. He must be commended for accepting a thankless job. But, in all fairness, he did not seem to have the passion required by the great challenge facing Philippine sports. It is a challenge that calls for generous investment of blood, sweat and tears.

Arthur Macapagal, unlike Cojuangco, has been deep in the trenches of the sports community, serving as chief of the shooting association. He understands the problems confronting the sports associations.

Unlike Cojuangco, Macapagal was an Olympian himself. He knows what competing seriously requires. In a word, it requires not just the talents of individual athletes but also the support of a competent sports establishment.

Already, Macapagal has drawn up a comprehensive plan to improve our participation in the 2012 London Olympics. That plan, now being discussed with the 40 national sports associations, is centered on a focused talent identification program and the establishment of a pool of elite athletes to be developed and trained intensively and under the best coaches there are.

In addition, Macapagal proposes the establishment of a Philippine Business Sports Foundation to ensure support for the various sports associations. To deserve greater support, he asks the national sports associations to improve on their organizational maturity, build effective governance processes and strengthen their individual financial capabilities.

The quality of our participation in international competitions rests ultimately on the strength of our national sports associations. When they are weak, our national team will be mediocre. When they are strong, we will regain the world’s respect.

Our national sports associations deserve to be heard by the Philippine Olympic Committee. The task of the POC is not just to deliver a national team to the site of the next Olympics. It is much more than that: requiring supervision of a comprehensive national sports development program hand-in-hand with the national sports associations.

Peping has done his time, with lackluster results. Patriotism should dictate that he hand over the reins of our Olympic preparation to someone else who better represents the national sports associations. Someone who is committing to work a lot harder.

There is not much time before the next Olympics to dramatically improve the quality of our participation and boost national morale.