Why not a plan for medal-rich sports?

In the aftermath of our dismal showing in the 26th Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia, there have been calls for courtesy resignations, better planning and even an overhaul of sports in the country.
While another sixth-place finish is perhaps the result of a confluence of factors, it is still a hard pill to swallow and hardly uplifting to our countrymen who are seeking inspiration from their athletes.
Part of the pain is not just because of nationalistic fervor. For one thing, the myth of the Filipino athlete still being superior over his Southeast Asian neighbors in most sports disciplines continues to hound our landscape.
There is no question about the innate talent of the Filipino athlete and his being blessed with natural strength, rhythm and athleticism.
We are no longer that superior.
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Our neighbors have decided to do something about their athletic deficiencies by training diligently and going overseas for coaching and tournaments. Athletes are supported by governments and private sectors that value the role of sports in nation-building.
Take the rise of Vietnam in the SEA Games: It is a tribute to their commitment to sports achievement as an integral part of nationhood.
While we remained trusting in our talent, our neighbors opted to toil hard and long to be better athletes.
It’s only in basketball where the SEA Games field still can’t topple the Philippines, save for one time. Our women’ squad was seconds away from a gold medal.
And yet, if we become complacent with our basketball savvy, even that superiority can be seriously threatened.
There’s also the issue of finances. Not all Philippine sports associations have the generosity of dedicated sportsmen who contribute resources and manpower to help the sports they have opted to support.
Money is still an issue, more so perhaps with team sports, where you cannot have a full compliment of athletes unless you send the whole team to a sports meet abroad.
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Perhaps the time has come again to consider prioritizing what events we have to work on to improve our chances of winning more gold medals in the SEA Games and other sports events.
What if we had a development plan that had the next two SEA Games and Asian Games in mind and we prioritized athletics, swimming, boxing, gymnastics and shooting?
I know boxing already has a program in place but let’s include it in this proposal. These are five medal-rich sports that collectively have the most number of gold medals at stake.
We can organize funding, facilities and training for programs for these disciplines that stretch from the grassroots to the elite level of skill.
Other sports will probably be jealous and complain about being left out in the cold, and in our culture where everybody has to be invited to the party, sports politics will again be blamed for favoring the medal-rich sports.
We will not neglect the other sports but try only a four- to six-year plan of improving our performances in medal-heavy events.
Nothing greedy about this idea. It’s simply strategic.
If at the end of, say, a six-year stretch and we realize that we will need more time, resources and personnel to overhaul our deficiencies in the sports where our neighbors are frolicking, then at least we have tried to be more organized in addressing our sports concerns.
Our success or failure will be measured against a plan and objectives and not merely short-term goals.