Sorry, no solid solution in sight
THE DESPERATE call to go for the first Olympic gold medal remained the battlecry at the end of the two-day consultative summit among top players in Philippine sports.
Somebody should’ve stood up to explain that bagging that dream gold medal does not, and will not provide an instant cure-all to the age-old problems, the assorted ills hobbling sports in our poor, troubled land.
Another insignificant thing that emanated from the rush-rush summit was the report that Richie Garcia, immediate past head of the Philippine Sports Commission, the government’s funding arm for sports, had been denied accreditation to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics
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Garcia readily explained he had no intention of attending the Rio Olympics, after all.
“Sabi sa akin ni Richie, ayaw niya talaga, he didn’t want to go to Rio,” veteran sportswriter Eddie Alinea told the Inquirer yesterday.
Alinea said he saw the list of summit participants, and noted that “many of those who attended were the big problems of Philippine sports themselves.”
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Richie Garcia stuck cold in Manila was the most significant contribution from the Philippine Olympic Committee, accrediting body, to the Philippine campaign in the last Olympics?
Said one certified summit participant: “Butch Ramirez is determined. The fly in the ointment is Peping Cojuangco. I heard they abandoned Richie. Didn’t even accredit him for Rio. Will wait and see.”
Anyway, it was reported in the papers that the Philippine Sports Institute (PSI) will be launched by the Philippine Sports Commission (on Oct. 1) and will have a P300 million budget. The PSC said it will be the vessel from which the Philippines could win its first Olympic gold medal.
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The proposed national sports institute, the PSC added, will be established nationwide to be the centerpiece of a program to discover, develop and train future internationalists.
This could also help put an end to the fractured practice perfected by the POC of tapping foreign-trained athletes with Filipino blood to carry the fight for the Philippines in major international competitions.
Suddenly, there’s the promise of genuine change, greater things in the Philippine sports horizon?
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Said the respected national sports development guru Dr. Aparicio Mequi: “We’ve done several similar activities with no change. So what we are now doing is an act of faith.”
“I tend to be skeptical but, in sports, everything starts with faith, hope, dream, hard work.”
Dr. Mequi honestly believes winning a first Olympic gold for the Philippines could’ve a placebo effect but, on the whole, it would prove an insipid solution to monumental problems in national sports.
