Los Angeles stint in ’32 RP’s best

Editor’s note: This is the second of a series of articles on the Philippine countdown for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

The Philippines enjoyed its richest medal harvest at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics as the delegation of eight athletes copped three bronze medals. The late professor Candido Bartolome was the delegation head. The Filipino contingent also included officials J. C. Aliviar, Jose Padilla, Jr., H. J. Scoffield and Fernando Bautista.

In 1936, the Philippines sent 29 athletes, including 16 basketball players to the 11th Berlin Olympics. Toribio and Yldefonso were back in their third Olympics. The Filipino cagers, coached by Chito Calvo, should’ve clinched a medal but a quirk in the rules left the squad out of the podium. The hoopsters posted a 4-1 record but because of the bracketing system, were eligible to play only for fifth place. Curiously, Mexico–victimized by the Philippines in the eliminations–took the bronze. The Filipinos wound up fifth, the highest finish for an Asian team ever in Olympic basketball. Two of Calvo’s stars were Charlie Borck and Ambrosio Padilla.

World War II cancelled the 1940 and 1944 Games.

In 1948, London hosted the return of the Olympics and the Philippines was represented by 24 athletes, including 11 cagers, and five officials. It was the Philippine delegation’s first trip to the Olympics by plane but the flight had stops in Bangkok, Calcutta, Karachi, Cairo, Athens, Rome and Madrid before finally landing in London.

The Filipinos were blanked but Fil-Am diver Victoria Manalo Draves provided some consolation by capturing gold medals in the three-meter springboard and 10-meter platform. Alas, she competed for the US, not the Philippines where her father Theodore, a musician, was born. Draves was born in the US in 1924 to a Filipino father and an English mother, Gertrude Taylor. After the Olympics, she visited the Philippines with her husband Lyle Draves, performed exhibitions in Cebu, went to her father’s hometown–-Orani, Bataan, and paid a courtesy call on President Quirino in Malacañang.

The medal drought extended to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics where the Philippines sent a delegation of 26 athletes and seven officials. Fely Fajardo coached the basketball team to ninth place in a field of 23. Among the cagers were Ramoncito Campos, Pocholo Martinez, Caloy Loyzaga, Tony Genato, Paeng Hechanova, Eddie Lim and Pons Saldana.

At the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, there were 39 Filipino athletes. The basketball team, coached by Leo Prieto, improved to seventh spot. Campos appeared in his third Olympics. The cagers beat Thailand, Japan, France and Chile in their campaign.

Filipina athletes made their first Olympic appearance in Helsinki as Francisca Sanopal and Manolita Cinco competed in the 80-meter hurdles and Gertrudes Lozada and Jocelyn von Giese joined the swimming squad.

(To be continued)