Two Olympians on Olympism

June ended with your columnist receiving from the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) what is, based on my personal situation, aptly called the “Sports for All Award”, the title of this column we’ve had in The Philippine Star since 2005.

I started writing a column, called Personal Best”” for The STAR in 1989, upon acceptance of my resignation as Secretary of Agrarian Reform by President Corazon C.  Aquino. I had to stop my column writing for The STAR after I was drafted back into government service by Pres Aquino’s successor, Pres Fidel V. Ramos as chairman of the PSC in March 1995.

After I stepped down as chairman of PSC at the end of Pres Ramos’s term in 1998, I resumed my “Personal Best” sport column in another paper until around 2003-04. Shortly thereafter, I returned to The STAR but that time around, I chose to name the column, “Sports for All”.  That choice simply served to further reinforce an advocacy I had been, for the last 20 years, promoting, protecting and defending since I was chairman of the PSC: indeed, “Sports is for All”, regardless of age, talent, gender, socio-economic class, race, political persuasion or faith system. And the record of the programs of the PSC during my stewardship should bear me out.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to have received a phone call from POC’s Jeff Tamayo who informed me that I was to receive such an award on June 28 from the POC and PSC during the celebration of International Olympic Day at the University of Makati (UMak). Others who received awards but unfortunately I did not personally witness were Pres Ramos (who I understand did pushups before hundreds of UMak students and guests), fellow Star columnist Quinito Henson (whose wife, Menchu, received it on his behalf), Star’s Abac Cordero, former taekwondo national team member and incumbent Makati councilor Monsour del Rosario, among others.

I congratulate the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for mandating the commemoration of International Olympic Day if only to remind everyone of the values of Olympism, one of which is fair play.

With commercialism and materialism influencing and sometimes, dominating, almost all aspects of human life, Olympic values are being seriously challenged. We have to find imaginative ways by which to resist this deadly trend. Another problem which ought to be addressed urgently is the lack of physical activity among the young who  are distracted by IT and computerization which otherwise should be precious tools for knowledge creation and access.

It was rather timely that we received a reaction to an earlier column on Olympism from fencing’s Victor (Toto) Africa urging that Olympic philosophy and values be taught in Philippine schools. The feedback we got to my exchange of views with Africa came from two personalities who actually imbibe and live out the values of Olympism, and are Olympians of the 50’s and the 70’s.

Rafael (Paeng) Hechanova (1952 Philippine national basketball team to the Helsinki Olympics) and Arturo (Art) Macapagal (Philippine national shooting team to the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal Olympics), chairman and president, respectively, of the Philippine Olympian Association, wrote “to participate in the discussion on the value of Olympism in the development of man”.

Hechanova and Macapagal agree wholeheartedly with our message on the need to first understand what Olympism is all about and with Africa’s suggestion for the Department of Education through Secretary, Br Armin Luistro, FSC, to have school children exposed to Olympism and its core values.

The two gentlemen reveal that “part of our countrymen’s frustration (with) medal shortfalls in international sports competitions is (the) failure to appreciate the role of sports in nation-building. The Olympics, as envisioned by its founder, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, is not just about winning. More important than the triumph is the struggle.”

The two Olympians add that “through the years, as pointed out correctly in your column, crass commercialism has posed a formidable challenge in achieving the goals of the Olympics and Olympism.”  They point out that even the current president of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, has opined that the values of friendship, fair play, non-violence and rejection of any form of doping are no longer easy to transmit to athletes in the normal Olympic Games.

Thus, as they and others, including Dr Perry Mequi, former PSC chairman and Asian Games track and field bronze medalist, point out, the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) was born in response to the urgency of transmitting the values of friendship, fair play etc early in an elite athlete’s life through a channel other than the normal Olympic Games. Rogge is therefore being consistent when he emphasizes that the YOG “should not be seen as a mini-Olympic Games. The main goal is not elitism. The main goal is not competitions as such. The main goal is to give the youngsters an education based on Olympic values.” More on Olympism next week.