IT is simple common sense that our athletes for both the Tokyo Olympics and the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games be given priority in the vaccination process. Those who disagree don’t know where they’re coming from.
Our athletes and their coaches as well are heroes, too, in their own right and, therefore, deserve some degree of preferential treatment. Their dedication to harvest honors for flag and country on the world stage ends all debate as to their true worth as Filipinos.
There is no argument, too, about our Covid-19 front liners and our elderlies being 1-2 in the vaccine queue. You do not do that and you are worse than Trump in his distorted belief that the last US presidential election was stolen from him.
Our frontliners are our first line of defense against this vicious virus plaguing mankind for more than a year now. There are no fighters more fearless than their kind.
And, of course, our dear seniors are our most beloved, the most compromised amid the pandemic. Giving them VIP treatment should be the rule rather than the exception. This is one of those times when we could show our deepest gratitude to all the good things they’ve done us when they were in the prime of their lives.
Now, back to our athletes.
Their quest for honors aren’t just for them but more so for their country.
We have but a handful of them already qualified for the Tokyo Games in July. Thus, making them among the first to be inoculated should be no big deal really. While it would do them good due to the proximity of the Olympiad—which is just practically six months away—the early inoculation would give them peace of mind: I am safe and ready for the Olympics. As of now, only gymnast Carlos Yulo, pole vaulter EJ Obiena, and boxers Eumir Felix Marcial and Irish Magno have clinched Olympic slots. Almost sure of joining them in Tokyo is lifter Hidilyn Diaz, the silver winner in the 2016 Rio Olympics, who has been training in Malaysia for almost a year now.
But it is our delegation to the 31st Hanoi SEA Games in Vietnam whose health safety is foremost in the mind of Ramon Fernandez, basketball’s El Presidente, who is the chef de mission in the biennial meet.
He wants them vaccinated as soon as the vaccines arrive, possibly third week of this month.
“We will request authorities to prioritize our athletes the same way they’ll do with our frontliners,” Fernandez told our BM sportswriter Josef Ramos.
Just right.
As of last count, our Vietnam-bound delegation has 996 athletes, 262 coaches, 280 paralympians and 82 para coaches.
Although we won the last SEA Games in Manila in 2019, our chances have been downgraded to, at best, third overall. Reason? Many of the events where we scored massive victories at Clark Freeport had been mostly scrapped by Vietnam, which has the final say on which disciplines to be played. It is a concession traditionally given to the country hosting the Games.
It’s a queer set-up but that’s how things work among the 11 SEA nations. Each is given a ton of chances to savor victory—however bland it may taste. It is what it is.
THAT’S IT The Australian Open is on its third day today and everything is going on fine since Monday, with limited spectators allowed at the Rod Laver arena as Melbourne has practically put the Covid-19 under control. Let’s pray it holds.