Senate probe won't solve sports debacle

Senator Antonio Trillanes wants to investigate the dismal showing of the Philippines in the 26th Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia. The disappointment of Trillanes should be shared by all Filipinos. But they should not allow themselves to be taken for another congressional ride.

Placing 6th among 11 participating nations would not have been so bad until one realizes that the five countries that ranked lower than the Philippines were Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, East Timor, and Brunei, in that order.

So you see, it is not really the rankings that rankle so much. It is our emergence as a sporting country that manages to rise only as high as the height of a doormat. And that is not something that can be remedied by an investigation notorious for not rising any higher.

The reference to the five other countries that ranked below the Philippines as doormats is used only in the figurative sense, not as a disparagement. Truth to tell, these non-sporting powers did quite well in accordance with their own capabilities and expectations.

But the Philippines used to be up there among the real sporting powers. It was one of the forces to reckon with in any regional athletic competition. Yet, its tragic fall never surprised anyone. Only Trillanes seems perplexed and wants to know why.

But of course Trillanes cannot be expected to know why. As a former military rebel who broke ranks to pursue political shortcuts, he himself is one fine example of everything that has gone wrong with this country.

Whatever endeavor may confront us, be it in politics or in sports, trust our country to scoot the other way and pursue a different tack or priority. Thus, we frown on real development of sports from the grassroots up. It takes too long and too much discipline.

Shortcuts are better with us. We dangle cash prizes for medals and recruit half-bloods. It is our mistaken notion that the smell of money enhances performance and infusion of dominant genes ensures victory.

Nothing, of course, is more wrong. The records of roughly 200 countries participating in the Olympics and other sporting events will show that mere wealth and physical attributes, unless whipped into form by practice and discipline, do not guarantee winning form.

On the other hand, the absence of wealth and superior form are no hindrances to the winning performance of those who make practice and discipline a religion. And there is no better example of this than China, the world’s newest sports superpower.

China, of course, has found new affluence. But it did not use to be wealthy. And the Chinese, being Asians, do not have the build of western athletes. But what the Chinese have is focus. They want something, they get it.

They get it not because they have been promised millions in cash incentives or recruited half-bloods to carry their team, to the silent demoralization of the “inferior” locals, but because getting it has become quite natural after all the hard work, practice and discipline.

The story has often been told about how China begins selecting and training future athletes from childhood. It is a story that eventually gets retold in the drastic changes the world has seen in China’s growing competitiveness in sporting meets everywhere.

If Trillanes really wants to know what happened, he should not begin his search for answers in a congressional hearing, where the only answers he is likely to encounter are those that say: “Yes, you honor” or “No, your honor.”