Caluag fails in BMX bid as PHL concludes London Olympics with zero medals

Caliuag is not the best player in wherever he came from as Fil-Am. .

He is a great biker but not the kind of player expected to win in the Olympics. He is not the greatest contender in this event, and he knows it. Plus, he probably know some of the players and their skills in his line up especially if he was competing in the US a lot before.

He did his best and I commend him for carrying our Philipine flag or representing our country.

But there is something wrong with the picture, our winless feat in London Olympics.

First of all, very few Filipinos know him and rest of our Olympians. Lots of us have no clue who he is.

Lots of us don’t know who our Olympians for this London Olympics. They were just chosen to represent us because their past accomplishments seem to help them qualify.

I believe that our Olympians in London don’t have inner drive to win. They just happen to be talented in their individual sports and they excel. Their sports are not even THAT popular in
our country. They don’t have massive followers in their sports and supporters from our country.

These athletes need support groups from within their fellow athletes of the same sports, from their families, friends, their coaches, sports enthusiasts, and the entire country.

This is where they are lacking. We cannot just leave them in London without even words of encouragement from all of us because we don’t know them literally.

Talking about massive support.

Do you see parents, families, close friends and American media supporting American athletes? Yes, they do. Yes, they are everywhere in London. Perhaps 50% of London audience in bleachers are Americans. Does their support pay off? Yes, definitely.

Do you see athletes’ parents in the Olympics? Yes, lots of them are there watching in the audience. Do these supports work? Yes, I think so. Do they garner the most number or Olympic medals? Yes, then do. This is the American way and it works for the American athletes.

Do we have our support to Filipino athletes? Yes, maybe ONLY spirit. Is it enough? Definitely, not enough and whatever little support they got from us, not enough.

Are ther lots of Filipinos there in London to watch them play? No, we were not there watch and support them. Would our support and presence in their sports events make a difference when they compete. I would have to say yes I think.

It is great to compete knowing that there are lots of people, friends, and families support you and cheer for you in the audience. This is what we do NOT do to our athletes.

Chinese athletes have a different story. They have a different kind of support from Chinese government and Chinese people that work for them. They have the second highest number of medals after the US.

We, Filipinos, need to think of effective ways in supporting our athletes that work great. And we have not found it yet. Thus, we have to experiment and discover them yet. Until we garner lots of Olympic medals, we have to evaluate, re-evaluate, create, re-create, evolve, revamp, innovate, restructure or whatever adjectives we have to use to come up with Olympic formulas or strategies that will work in the future Olympics. And they include hiring WINNING coaches from abroad and bring them to our country and start training WINNING athletes.

It is not easy thing to do since it needs tons of resources but worth trying. It will be paid-off in the long run.