FILE – PSC Chairman Butch Ramirez. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
The physique of Olympic pole vault champion Armand Duplantis offers no clue that he is a cut above the rest. Sports science could offer a rational explanation.
The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) plans to invest heavily on sports science equipment to enhance the chances of Filipino athletes in winning more medals in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“Sending our athletes to foreign training and competitions is really ideal. But as a country, if you want to be at par with international standards and compete with other countries at a very high level, we really have to purchase and acquire cutting-edge technology,’’ said PSC chair William Ramirez.
The PSC chief believes the procurement of these ultramodern machines in sports science could be the game changer in future top-caliber tournaments of national athletes such as the Olympics.
“We’ve already bought a biomechanics machine, before the [COVID-19] pandemic, but we still lack machines that could track the volume of oxygen, the heartbeats and emotions of an athlete, and other performance requirements,’’ said Ramirez.
The country’s sports science program will be put under the Philippine Sports Institute (PSI), a department funded by the PSC and headed by national training director Marc Edward Velasco.
PSC executive director Guillermo Iroy is also involved with the operations of the PSI.
Duplantis, one of Sweden’s sports celebrities who stands 5-foot-11, is the current world record holder with a height of