PHILIPPINE Sports Commission Chair William Ramirez said yesterday they will review the list of the focus sports identified by the previous administration and remove those that don’t have realistic chances of sending athletes to the Olympics.
“We should prioritize those that could perform well in the Olympics,” Ramirez said.
Sports prioritized by the PSC during the term of President Aquino were athletics, archery, billiards, boxing, taekwondo, wrestling, wushu, judo, karatedo and chess.
Billiards, chess and wushu are played in the Asian Games and Southeast Asian Games but are not regular events in the Summer Games.
“No matter how good you are, let’s say, in wushu, you will never win a medal in the Olympics because it’s not part of the Olympic program,” said Ramirez.
He said priority will now be given to sports that can win medals in the Games.
“Let’s be honest. We cannot win a medal in basketball and volleyball even though they’re popular hereabouts,” said Ramirez.
Weightlifting—where the Philippines took a silver medal in the Rio de Janeiro Games through Hidilyn Diaz—boxing and taekwondo are practically assured of keeping their spots in the priority roster.