IF the year 2020 caught us all flatfooted and gave us double and triple whammies all year long, 2021 pulled a lot of surprises on us too. But many of them were happy.
Like, who would ever forget that 2021, the Year of the Metal Ox gave us all the metal that we wanted—more than we bargained for. In the 32nd Olympiad in Tokyo last July, we finally got the gold medal that we had been lusting after since we first joined the Summer Games in 1924. Hidilyn Diaz gifted her country with the precious metal with her brave lifting of 127s kg in the clean and jerk for a total winning weight of 224 kgs.
Boxing gave us more metal in the same Summer Games. Nesthy Petecio snagged the first silver medal ever scored by a female boxer. Carlo Paalam provided us with more silver lining. And Eumir Marcial got us bronze, resulting in our biggest medal haul ever, besting the three medals we won in 1932 in the Los Angeles Olympics.
2021 also put us proudly on the world stage more than once. Yuka Saso became the first Filipino to win a major golf championship, the US Women’s Open, in San Francisco last June. Nonito Donaire KOd World Boxing Council champ Nordine Oubaali in May and climbed back up the world championship stage again. Donnie “Ahas” Nietes kept his World Boxing Organization international super flyweight title with a draw against Dominican Republic’s Borbelto Jimenez last September.
There’s more. Pole vaulter EJ Obiena broke his own personal and national record in the Paris Diamond League last August and brought home the silver, just behind Olympic champion Armand Duplantis of Sweden.
Gymnast Carlos Yulo became the first Filipino gymnast to corral multiple world championship medals by winning gold in the vault and silver in the parallel bars in the 2021 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan, last October.
Legendary chess master Eugene Torre planted himself in the World Chess Hall of Fame in April, becoming the first male Asian chess player to be given the honor.
2021 is also to be remembered because it gave us some breathing room after the oppressive lockdowns of 2020. We got the National Basketball Association games back, with crowds a-roaring at the stands. The Philippine Basketball Association played in a bubble, for a time. But now it’s back bewitching fans at its old venue, the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Volleyball wouldn’t be stopped. The Philippine Volleyball League ran smoothly under a bubble set-up in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, last July. The Rebisco-supported national men’s and women’s teams participated in the Asian Volleyball Confederation’s Women’s Club Volleyball Championship (and its male counterpart) in Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand last October. The Beach Volleyball Republic On Tour pushed on in La Union and the Asian Beach Volleyball Championship in Phuket, Thailand did its thing last November. So did the Philippine National Volleyball Federation stage its Champions League in late November.
2021 will be distinctly marked as the year when young, next-gen stars of Philippine basketball embarked on new career adventures in Japan. But it’s also a year when the PBA agreed to collaborate with other regional leagues, to grow the sport. This year new Team Lakay heroes—Jhanlo Sangiao, Jeremy Pacatiw, Lito Adiwang and Stephen Loman—dazzled MMA fans with their new fighting skills. This year, Manny Pacquiao retired.
In 2021 we also said goodbye to a few good men and one woman who gave their all to the sport that they loved the best: boxers Leopoldo Serrantes and Genebert Basadre, para table tennis ace Josephine Medina, young baseballer Jerome Yenson, Olympian swimmer Jacinto Cayco and basketball coaches Ato Badolato and Lawrence Cheongson.
But don’t be blue. We’ve gotta lotta livin’ to do in 2022. The Year of the Water Tiger is Ryder Cup Year, FIFA World Cup Year, World Volleyball Championship Year and a (delayed) Southeast Asian Games Year. The stars say it will be an easier year than 2020 and 2021. Let’s work on our roar and let all the games begin.
