JERMYN PRADO, in full combat uniform, mans a desk at the Philippine Navy Command in Taguig City. She’s tasked to do six hours of desk job almost every day.
Prado is the 2019 30th Southeast Asian Games gold medal winner in women’s individual time trial of cycling. She also clinched a silver in the road race to crown herself queen of cycling of the biennial
regional games the country hosted last December.
Only months after Filipino athletes dominated the country’s hosting of the SEA Games for only the fourth time—after 1981, 1991 and 2005—sports screeched to a halt. The Covid-19 pandemic struck the entire world and lockdowns and quarantines were put in place.
No training, no competition, no action. No nothing.
Prado rides for the Navy team sponsored by Standard Insurance—a non-life insurance business for over 60 years and the leading motor car insurer in the country. Since the enhanced community quarantine in March, she and her fellow cyclists couldn’t ride their bicycles anywhere in the country.
They had to settle for trainers inside the confines of their homes, or where ever they were locked down—a major international race, the Le Tour de Filipinas of Air21 and Ube Media Inc., was steamrollered by the pandemic and the International Cycling Union race’s 11th edition had to be shelved.
Elsewhere, athletes in eight sports supported by Powerball-Go For Gold-Scratchit! were forced to stay home, like any other non-essential citizen of the country, settling for workout at home—because even gyms were closed.
Chooks-to-Go, on the other hand, transformed its generosity in bankrolling the country’s elite basketball program into a nationwide frontliner-support campaign that kept doctors, nurses, police, military, among others, on their toes by never getting a rumbly tummy while they kept for against the virus.
The Manuel V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation (MVPSF) was the most resilient, keeping the faucet of support flowing especially on the country’s Tokyo Olympics-bound athlete—just like in the shoe commercial, it’s support never stops for MVPSF.
With the pandemic stunting sports for more than seven months now, the country’s foremost benefactors in sports stood resilient that even though business crashed into a wall like a cyclist somersaulting into a cliff, they never pulled the plug from their advocacy—love for sports.
1 comment
Where I can find the camo uniform? If available, please let me know.