Where are the athletes?

The legal sparring has overtaken the forthcoming Philippine Olympic Committee elections. On one end incumbent president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco appears to have ended up as an unopposed candidate as boxing association head Ricky Vargas’ candidacy has been disapproved by an election committee.

Vargas had supposedly failed to meet the requirement of “active” participation in the POC General Assembly by not attending the sessions. Vargas’ legal supporters are questioning the “active” participation rule since they claim that representatives had been dispatched to attend the meetings.

And now the Senate wants to join the fray by looking into the elections as well as financial issues related to Philippine sports.

This is all good and well and should not be simply dismissed as the ugly, political side of Philippine sports. The leadership issues must be dealt with judiciously with rules and fair play being the guide for any kind of elections on the national and sports association levels.

But where are the athletes in all this? Where is their voice in this equation?

Unfortunately, the athletes’ voices are muted by the political battles. Most are beholden to the associations they belong to and would not like to rock the boat. In the end, many athletes simply shrug their shoulders and dismiss the leadership issues and discussions as simply “politics.”

Perhaps that too must change. The athletes who carry the brunt of playing for the country surely have opinions on how sports is being run. Not all our athletes are articulate or had the opportunity to complete their education for a variety of reasons. But all of them are smart enough to be good athletes and they do have thoughts on how their sport should be developed and managed.

We are not advocating that athletes should run the sports organizations while they are still playing for the country. There is still a need for experienced leadership, financial flexibility and unfortunately, political savvy when running a sports group. But the athletes must have a way to have their voices heard.

Perhaps after all these leadership issues are settled, maybe the athletes can be heard without their elders shuddering about their wish lists, opinions or aspirations for Philippine sports.