A gold medalist in the just concluded South East Asian Games has stated that Philippine sports is in such an absurd state. Chris Tiu, the former king Blue Eagle who has offered his talents to the National basketball team cannot believe the sixth place finish the country got in the said games, even losing to Singapore, a small country with a small database of athletes. Well, I guess it’s not the number of athletes that matter or make a difference, but the quality of these athletes. I remember a line from “300,” where King Leonidas tells the Arcadian that he brought more soldiers than he did, even if there were thousands of Arcadians compared to his three hundred.
Indeed, we beat countries like Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, Timor Leste, as we should! Tiu may have a point, and beef at that, in saying that we should at least be in the top five. But Philippine sports is everything but a cohesive, national body of organizations. There are probably more factions in Philippine sports than there are in Philippine politics! The recently highlighted dragon boat wars have shown and proven that. It’s all about money, leadership or the lack thereof, national pride and sacrifice or the absence thereof, and good, solid training.
We sent 512 athletes, with the goal of winning medals. Several disciplines just fell flat. The regulars like boxing, track and field and taekwondo managed to pull their share of gold medals. But the rest, no golds whatsoever. To think that we are a country of ninety-four million plus strong, or weak, we could at least produce a handful of Pacquiaos, Muros, and other SEA Games greats! This showing at the 2011 SEA Games should be a wake-up call, if not a stun gun jolt to the teeth for Philippine sports, and the government agencies tasked to oversee them. Sports may not be at the top of government’s priorities, at a time when it is trying a former president. The least it could do is police their ranks, so as to make sports programs worth getting into by the youth and other athletes who so much better to offer with the correct support and guidance!
The fact that not a single high-ranking government official went to Indonesia to support the team, as opposed to at least sixty lawmakers who watched the now controversial win by Pacquiao in Las Vegas, speaks volumes of just how much we as a people really care about amateur sports. They have to be moneymakers like Pacquiao, or athletes with movie-star caliber face values like the Azkals, no offense, to be noticed or supported by the public. Sad, yes. Absurd, absolutely!
If the President is an aficionado of firearms, shouldn’t we at least be the best in shooting by now?