INCHEON, South Korea—Now Incheon, tomorrow Rio!
Daniel Caluag, winner of the country’s first gold medal in cycling’s BMX at the 17th Asian Games, is looking forward big time. His goal? Achieve in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics what he failed to accomplish in the London 2012 Olympics.
https://youtu.be/FU883yltbr0
“It was always with great hope when I went to London. But I wasn’t able to bring home a medal,” Caluag, 27, said. “On any given day in a competition, the best riders would be there and foil that hope. But that was a couple of years ago.”
Now he is focused on Rio, where he could probably end the country’s wait for an Olympic gold medal.
“I’m really looking forward to making it to Rio,” Caluag said. “But first, there is also the Southeast Asian Games to prepare for next year.”
The Filipino-American will defend his gold medal next year in the Southeast Asian Games in Singapore, as well as eye a second Asian Championship after his gold in 2013, also in Singapore.
For an easier route to the Olympics, Caluag also looks to compete in the World Championship in 2015 in Belguim, as well as in International Cycling Union races in Manchester, the Netherlands, Sweden, Argentina and the US.
“With a flexible job that allows me to do what I need to do, I can prepare for my next tournaments with ease,” Caluag said.
Caluag was unranked in 2014 by the International Union of Cycling (UCI) because of his failure to join ranking races. But he opted to have a “secret training” of his own and it did him wonders here in Incheon. While finishing a nursing degree—he is now a registered nurse—he raced in high-level but not UCI-sanctioned races in the US.
Prior to Incheon, Caluag married longtime girlfriend Stephanie in Kentucky. They now have a lovely daughter, Sydney Isabella, who was only a week old when he won the gold medal.
Caluag was a runaway winner of the BMX gold medal at the Ganghwa BMX Track on Wednesday. He ruled the seeding run with ease and finished first in all three motos, shoving Japan’s Masahiro Sampei to the silver medal and China’s Zhu Yan to the bronze. His 26-year-old brother Christopher John, however, missed the podium and finished fourth.
Caluag and his team, including Coach Greg Romero, will fly to Manila on Monday but will immediately return to the US.
“I’ll spend some 23 hours in Manila to meet my Lola Isabela and let her know about Isabella,” Caluag said.
The gold medal is woth P1 million under the Athletes Incentive Act. Philippine Sports Commission Chairman Ricardo Garcia, also the chief of mission in Incheon, guaranteed that Caluag will get his bonus on Monday.
Caluag and Romero promised Garcia, in return, to look for topnotch Filipino-American riders in the US to beef up the national team.
“There are plenty of them back there,” said Caluag, who was born in the US. His father Danilo is a native of Nueva Ecija, while his mother Isabelita is from Bulacan.
Image credits: Maximilian Mager