PLEASE DON’T ask sportsman Michael Keon, overachieving nephew of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the number of paths to the Olympic gold.
Not only a hundred, there may be more than a thousand.
Unfortunately, the Philippines has never failed to get lost on the road.
Why?
Because the country’s gold medal hunt-ers were perennially mired in mediocrity.
* * *
That, in a frowning nutshell, was Keon’s frank and honest appraisal of the unstable state of Philippine sports.
Does Keon mean pitiful and pathetic?
Well, not necessarily.
But what visibly irks Keon is that nothing has been done through the years to strictly raise the bar for Filipino Olympic hopefuls.
* * *
Keon will be the first person to tell you the situation is not that hopeless.
In fact, he called the shots in a golden period when RP’s athletics stars, led by Lydia de Vega and Isidro del Prado, shone in the Asian firmament.
Lydia ruled the century dash in both the 1982 New Delhi and the 1986 Seoul Asian Games.
But Lydia became an Asian star because she did not lean on her prowess and performance in the lowly Southeast Asian Games.
* * *
Keon was straight to the point.
Lydia would’ve not shone bright— she ably posted a qualifying time for the Barcelona Olympics but was cheated out of the slot by a paramour of a top athletics official—if she had wallowed in the shallow pool of freakish stardom.
Lydia instead refused to be lulled by her dazzling dominance in the Southeast Asian Games.
* * *
Keon last week bluntly told veteran scribe Percy Della, newly returned from California, that the lowly SEA Games, except maybe in boxing, should be out of the question when it comes to testing qualifiers for the Asian Games.
Why?
Because the SEA Games, compared to the Asiad, is an overglamorized inter-barrio tournament.
Standards are either soggy or sudsy, while every other aspirant could score and excel in events like fin swimming or slow-pitch something.
* * *
Keon was too kind to say it, but the SEA Games had the more solid trappings of a regional picnic than a full-fledged sports war.
The biennial event is also being exploited by professional junketeers and free-loaders who use their designations in national sports associations to join the biennial sports tourism fiesta.
Now, hold it.
The SEA Games is not totally useless, considering how it was able to project progress in the Lao Democratic People’s Republic during the 2009 Vientiane Games.
Indonesia can be expected to show the world how much it has recovered when it hosts the SEA Games next year.
It will be Myanmar’s turn to say something good about its hated military regime when it plays host in 2013.
* * *
Fine, indeed.
But if Michael Keon, now threatening to drop out of circulation, could have his way, he would bat to have future SEA Games carry a label and warning.
You know, just as smoking is dangerous to your health, standards in the SEA Games are obstacles to Filipino Olympic dreams.
* * *
(WARNING: From national athletics president Go Teng Kok: “Somebody who is not an NSA president or even a member of an NSA is now a member of the POC committee that selects athletes who will go to the Asian Games. This is one of the craziest ideas ever conceived by the POC. How can someone who does not truly love nor had the time to bond with sportsmen and know their problems be given the job of choosing Asian Games-bound athletes? Why must he dip his fingers into the delicate task of choosing our representatives to a very high-level competition? He is a big joke in our serious preparations for the Asian Games. We must, as one, all cry out for his eviction from the selection committee or our Asian Games campaign will head for disaster.”)
Not only a hundred, there may be more than a thousand.
Unfortunately, the Philippines has never failed to get lost on the road.
Why?
Because the country’s gold medal hunt-ers were perennially mired in mediocrity.
* * *
That, in a frowning nutshell, was Keon’s frank and honest appraisal of the unstable state of Philippine sports.
Does Keon mean pitiful and pathetic?
Well, not necessarily.
But what visibly irks Keon is that nothing has been done through the years to strictly raise the bar for Filipino Olympic hopefuls.
* * *
Keon will be the first person to tell you the situation is not that hopeless.
In fact, he called the shots in a golden period when RP’s athletics stars, led by Lydia de Vega and Isidro del Prado, shone in the Asian firmament.
Lydia ruled the century dash in both the 1982 New Delhi and the 1986 Seoul Asian Games.
But Lydia became an Asian star because she did not lean on her prowess and performance in the lowly Southeast Asian Games.
* * *
Keon was straight to the point.
Lydia would’ve not shone bright— she ably posted a qualifying time for the Barcelona Olympics but was cheated out of the slot by a paramour of a top athletics official—if she had wallowed in the shallow pool of freakish stardom.
Lydia instead refused to be lulled by her dazzling dominance in the Southeast Asian Games.
* * *
Keon last week bluntly told veteran scribe Percy Della, newly returned from California, that the lowly SEA Games, except maybe in boxing, should be out of the question when it comes to testing qualifiers for the Asian Games.
Why?
Because the SEA Games, compared to the Asiad, is an overglamorized inter-barrio tournament.
Standards are either soggy or sudsy, while every other aspirant could score and excel in events like fin swimming or slow-pitch something.
* * *
Keon was too kind to say it, but the SEA Games had the more solid trappings of a regional picnic than a full-fledged sports war.
The biennial event is also being exploited by professional junketeers and free-loaders who use their designations in national sports associations to join the biennial sports tourism fiesta.
Now, hold it.
The SEA Games is not totally useless, considering how it was able to project progress in the Lao Democratic People’s Republic during the 2009 Vientiane Games.
Indonesia can be expected to show the world how much it has recovered when it hosts the SEA Games next year.
It will be Myanmar’s turn to say something good about its hated military regime when it plays host in 2013.
* * *
Fine, indeed.
But if Michael Keon, now threatening to drop out of circulation, could have his way, he would bat to have future SEA Games carry a label and warning.
You know, just as smoking is dangerous to your health, standards in the SEA Games are obstacles to Filipino Olympic dreams.
* * *
(WARNING: From national athletics president Go Teng Kok: “Somebody who is not an NSA president or even a member of an NSA is now a member of the POC committee that selects athletes who will go to the Asian Games. This is one of the craziest ideas ever conceived by the POC. How can someone who does not truly love nor had the time to bond with sportsmen and know their problems be given the job of choosing Asian Games-bound athletes? Why must he dip his fingers into the delicate task of choosing our representatives to a very high-level competition? He is a big joke in our serious preparations for the Asian Games. We must, as one, all cry out for his eviction from the selection committee or our Asian Games campaign will head for disaster.”)
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