Officials want Team Philippines focused on LA 2028

Vanessa Sarno of the the Philippines competes during the women’s 71kg weightlifting event, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Top sports officials are expected to get together to resolve issues that cropped up towards the end of the Philippine campaign in the Paris Olympics in an effort to make sure the national sporting program doesn’t get sidetracked from its next big goal: the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Sources within Team Philippines said Saturday that several officials, including high-ranking officers from two affected national sports associations, will make an effort to sort through the problems that struck the golf and weightlifting squads days before the closing of the Summer Games at the glamorous French capital.

On top of the issues needed to be sorted out is the “toxic environment” that weightlifter Vanessa Sarno blamed after she registered three “No Lifts” in the snatch department of the women’s 71-kilogram competition and crashed out of the podium race early.

“I was ready,” Sarno told reporters in Paris of her Olympic participation, where she looked tense backstage on early Saturday morning (Manila time). “I was just weak and down because at the time when we were about to start our training in Metz, I was no longer comfortable with the people around me. They were the reason why I developed depression over my sport.”

“I admit my [mental health] was really low because of the people around me. [The environment] was so toxic.”

Sarno’s exit ended the run of the three-strong weightlifting squad, which started with men’s bet John Ceniza also failing to progress to the clean and jerk after going three-and-out in the snatch. Only Elreen Ando made it through to the clean and jerk but also fell short of the podium.

Sarno admitted she almost quit the team due to the toxicity surrounding her, describing the people around her as those who wanted to pull her down.

Celebrate first

In a phone call from France, Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas (SWP) president Monico Puentevella said he has no idea what “toxic environment” Sarno was referring to but hinted at several issues that need to be addressed within the national team.

“I don’t know what she means by toxic,” Puentevella told the Inquirer on late Saturday.

However, Puentevella said there were things that needed to be smoothened out, but not while the country is celebrating its best Olympic performance in history.

“I will address this, trust me,” Puentevella said. “I will fix things in two weeks, when we’re done celebrating. For now, what [two-gold winner gymnast] Caloy [Yulo] did was amazing and the country deserves to celebrate that.”

In golf, controversy struck over a video that made the rounds on the internet showing Dottie Ardina lamenting on the lack of uniforms for the Philippines’ representatives.

“Shout-out to those who [were supposed] to give us our uniforms; where did [the uniforms] go?” Ardina said in Filipino in the video. “There are just two of us [in the Philippine golf team], we are only 22 [athletes representing the Philippines in total] and yet the uniforms are not complete.”

Fanning the ire of sports fans was the fact that while Ardina was ranting over the lack of uniforms, she was working to patch the Philippine flag on her golf shirt using double adhesive tapes.

The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) released a statement regarding the incident, which has already gone viral (See related story on this page).

Among the things Puentevella hinted that he will address are Sarno’s revelations that she did not have her preferred coach for the final training push in Metz, France, where the Team Philippines was camped a month before the Games.

“The coach I had in Metz wasn’t my coach, who guided me, had faith in my ability to make it to the Olympics,” Sarno said.

Underlying issues

“For now, let her performance speak for itself,” Puentevella said. “She’s a young girl, it’s her first Olympics. She got the coach she wanted. She was out. She’s a young girl with a bright future.”

Sources told the Inquirer that the SWP will also look at several underlying issues that weighed down the national squad, which carried a lot of promise and expectation, especially after Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo’s breakthrough gold three years ago in the Tokyo Games.

POC president Bambol Tolentino had said the standards set by the Team Philippines in the Tokyo and Paris Olympiads demanded a full focus on the 2028 LA campaign.

The “work for Los Angeles in 2028 starts now,” Tolentino said.

Some other important decisions have already been made.

Gymnast Carlos Yulo, the nation’s first double-gold performer in the Olympics, will carry the Philippine flag along with boxing’s bronze medalist Aira Villegas on Sunday (Manila time) during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics.