20 years since Atlanta, Philippines still looking for elusive Olympic medal

Atlanta in 1996 was a high year for the Philippines in the Olympics.

Onyok Velasco was on the verge of bringing the highest Olympic honor to the Philippines, but ultimately came up short.
His Bulgarian rival Daniel Petrov instead took the gold in a controversial match that saw the Philippines’ best chance for Olympic gold dissipate into Georgia mist.

After Velasco’s silver finish, the Philippines’ medal haul is at nine, two silvers and seven bronzes.

It’s been two full decades in the Philippines’ quest for an Olympic medal, and it’s been four Olympiads of futility for the Filipinos.

Bronze age

The Filipinos first qualified in the Olympics during 1924 Great Britain Summer Games but it would take another four years before swimmer Teofilo Yldefonso got the country’s first bronze in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.

The Filipinos had its most successful Games in 1932 in Los Angeles, taking home three bronze medals.
Yldefonso once again scored a bronze in the Men’s 200-meter breaststroke, the same event he won in Amsterdam.

Simeon Toribio and Jose Villanueva were the other bronze medallists in the 1932 Summer Games taking stepping in the podiums of the Men’s high jump and Men’s bantamweight boxing events.

Miguel White upped the Philippines’ medal tally to five, all bronze medals, in the 1936 Berlin Games when he placed third in the 400-meter hurdles.

Berlin also saw the Philippines’ early dominance in basketball when it finished 5th—the highest finish by an Asian country in the Olympics.

The drought

The Philippines will experience its longest medal drought in the Olympics, 28 years to be exact, when it failed to snatch a single hardware in five Olympiads.

It would’ve been six if the 1944 Summer Games were not cancelled due to World War II.

Anthony Villaueva would end the medal drought for the Philippines in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics—losing in the gold medal match against Soviet Union’s Stanislav Stephaskin 3-2 in the Men’s featherweight boxing final.

In 1948, however, the Philippines made basketball history when the men’s national team became the first ever group to eclipse the century mark in a 102-30 obliteration of Iraq in London.

A second drought

Another drought came for the Philippines in the biggest sporting stage in the world, this time not winning anything for 24 years.

After Villanueva’s silver in 1964, the next medal was courtesy of light flyweight Roel Velasco when he won the bronze in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Another boxer, Leopoldo Serantes, would give the Philippines its final bronze medal when he got a podium slot in the light flyweight-boxing event in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

In 2012, the Philippines also failed to bag a medal after sending the smallest delegation of 11 athletes to the Games since 1996.

The Philippines has the notoriety of being a tropical paradise but in 1972, the Filipinos sent a delegation in the 1972 Hokkaido Winter Olympics.

In the 1972 Munich Games, the Philippines sent its biggest delegation with 53 athletes and it was in this Summer Games that the Filipinos had its last basketball team with Bogs Adornado, Danny Florencio, and Yoyong Martirez leading the contingent.

Arianne Cerdena first gave the Philippines a gold medal when she topped the competition in the bowling tournament in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but it was only an award for a demonstration sport.

Pacquiao in Olympics

Manny Pacquiao, undoubtedly the greatest Filipino athlete ever, led the Philippine contingent in the Olympics in Beijing 2008.

He wasn’t part of the delegation that would compete in the amateur showcase but boxing’s only eight-division World champion was the Philippines’ flag-bearer.

Willy Wang also brought home a gold medal in Wushu in that edition of the Olympiad but it didn’t count in the medal tally since Wushu was only a demonstration sport.