COMPETITION and training took the backseat for champion triathlete Nikko Huelgas during the Covid-19 pandemic, just like every other athletes all over the world.
But Huelgas took a route less traveled when beaches were off limits, bicycles were banned from the highways and running was restricted to jogging in place.
“I got myself into an NGO [nongovernment organization], thanks to a good friend who introduced me to something unique,” Huelgas, a two-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, told BusinessMirror.
The NGO is called the Students’ Transformation and Enrichment for Truth-Values Integration and Promotion or STET-VIP.
Huelgas said his buddy, triathlete and coach Al Gonzalez, invited him to join the organization.
“Our response during this pandemic was to donate goods to the hard to reach areas and the poorest of the poor,” Huelgas said, adding they focused on indigenous people in remote areas where relief is hard to come by.
Huelgas, the 29-year-old head of the Philippine Olympic Committee Athletes’ Commission, said the lockdown almost got to his system as he longed to practice his multi-discipline sport.
“I had anxiety especially when the races were canceled. So there wasn’t anything to look forward to,” he said. “My goals were gone and there was no place to train. It was really awful.”
But when he immersed himself with STET-VIP, he said everything changed.
“STET-VIP saved me from my worries I had a bigger purpose and I was able to go out so mentally, I became better,” he said.
Huelgas joined STET-VIP in visiting depressed areas where families affected by the recent typhoons Rolly and Ulysses.
“I saw a bigger perspective. There are bigger problems than what I was going through and the little help we gave from simply providing milk to children, it means the world to them. I was humbled,” he said.
Triathlon competitions remain shuttered although the Asian Cup was scheduled for February next year in Rayong, Thailand. But without a vaccine, the competition faces the risk of being postponed.
“I’ll prepare well and get back the drive,” he said. “But at the moment, I like to enjoy what I’m doing right now with STET-VIP.”