RIO DE JANEIRO—Hidilyn Diaz gave the Philippines a silver medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics that was celebrated back home like it was gold. For several reasons.
First, Diaz, competing in her third straight Olympics, ended a 20-year drought since Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco bagged a medal of the same hue at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Second, it was the country’s first in Olympic weightlifting.
Third, Diaz became the first Filipina to win an Olympic medal—only the 10th for the country since Filipino athletes started participating in the world’s biggest sporting stage in the 1928 Amsterdam Games.
But is the silver worthy enough to give the Philippines a passing mark in these Olympics a South American country hosted for the first time?
For Philippine chief of mission Jose Romasanta, Diaz and the 12 other Filipino athletes who competed in Rio deserve all the praises.
“We cannot ask for anything more from our athletes here,” Romasanta said just hours before the urn was extinguished, signaling the end of the Rio Olympics in a rainy evening on Sunday. “They gave Rio their best shot. This is the first time I saw our athletes fight so intensely in the Olympics.”
Philippine participation in the Olympics has dwindled since Sydney. From the 20 athletes who saw action in 2000, the participation was consistent with its downward swing—16 athletes in Athens, 15 in Beijing and 11 in London, one less than Rio.
In those Games, boxers, swimmers and taekwondo jins made up most of the delegation. There were six from swimming and four each from taekwondo and boxing in Athens; and four boxers, four swimmers and three jins in Beijing.
In London the Philippines entered two archers and only one in boxing. It also had two compulsory athletes in swimming and one, the first time, qualifier in BMX of cycling, but Daniel Caluag wasn’t homegrown.
At Rio 2016, two were two straight Olympians—Diaz and long jumper Marestella Torres Sunang—and two saw action for the second consecutive Games—Olympic Universality Program swimmers Jessie Khing Lacuna and Jasmine Alkhaldi.
The rest were first-timers but qualifiers—Ian Lariba in table tennis, Nestor Colonia in weightlifting, Kirstie Elaine Alora in taekwondo, Mary Joy Tabal in women’s marathon, Eric Cray in men’s 400 hurdles of athletics, Miguel Tabuena in golf, and Rogen Ladon and Charly Suarez in boxing. Filipino-Japanese Kodo Nakano was 13th on the list, a late addition because he subbed for a no-show qualifier from Iran.
None of them got a strong fighting chance.
Nakano was shown the exit only 97 seconds into his men’s -97-kilograms bout against an Italian, while Lacuna and Alkhaldi were knocked out of the heats in the men’s 400-meter freestyle and women’s 100-meter freestyle, respectively.
Tabuena blamed a right shoulder injury in finishing near the bottom of the 60-athlete field in golf that made a historic return to the Olympics after 112 years. Sunang hurt herself while warming up and, again, missed the finals, while Tabal was not prepared enough against a formidable field and the hot Rio sun and managed to survive the race.
Like swimming, which has never created a dent in any international event in recent years, Philippine boxing continued its nosedive.
Light flyweight Ladon and flyweight Suarez were legitimate qualifiers for Rio, but fought as if they learned nothing from their months of US training.
The boxing debacle reared several questions on the capability of the Association or Boxing Alliances in the Philippines, prompting Ricky Vargas to call for an election where he won’t be running anymore.
But that move by Vargas only prompted several to ask—Is it the presidency at fault, or those in direct control of the day-to-day technical management of the association? Was the US the right place to train the boxers? Why not Cuba? Why not Eastern Europe?
For the London 2012 Games, the lone boxing representative, Mark Anthony Barriga, trained also for months in Wales, a pretty country for anything else, but not for boxing.
Those are questions that need answers soon. Boxing, as always, remain as the country’s brightest prospect for its first Olympic gold.
Back to the drawing board?
For sure. Swivel chair experts have started dissecting what went wrong and whose head or heads need to roll. But would there be?
Romasanta suggested for a third independent party—outside of the Philippine Olympic Committee, where he is the first vice president, and Philippine Sports Commission, which spends for Philippine sports—to determine the path the country will take for Tokyo 2020 and beyond.
“I am for an independent management body that will determine the path, the program, for Philippine sports. We need not look far, we have experts at home, say the Sports Science College at the University of the Philippines,” Romasanta said.
For the meantime, let’s savor Diaz’s silver.
The pride of a never-before-heard Barangay Mampang in Zamboanga City is now the toast of Philippine sport. She banked a total of P7 million in incentives—P5 million from the Athletes’ Incentive Act and P2 million from President Duterte, who was ecstatic over an Olympic medalist from Mindanao. She was also gifted a brand-new house and lot.
Hopefully, Diaz would continue carrying the cudgels for Philippine sports, gaining more power in her arms, legs and shoulders, and determination in her heart to clinch gold in 2020.
Image credits: AP