Chasing Gold

Event : 2040 Manila Olympic Games
INT.: The Philippine Mens Basketball team led by team captain Robert Jaworski V is at the podium awaiting presentation of their Gold medals after defeating the NBA stars studded U.S. team in a blowout finals match.
Announcer : "Ladies and Gentlemen let's all rise for the playing of the Philippine national anthem".

Ahh the simple joy of day dreaming...it's free anyway right? Oh well back to reality. We're sure everybody is in Olympic mood and trying to catch their favorite sporting event and cheering their favorite athletes at the 2012 London Olympiad. Let's take a moment & take a look back into our Olympic experience so far.


The Philippines debuted in the Olympic Games in 1924 at Paris with a one-athlete, one official

delegation. It was one of the 44 countries that participated. David Nepomuceno's fame as a sprint specialist led to his selection as the first Filipino—and Southeast Asian—athlete ever sent to the Olympics. But the then 24-year-old Nepomuceno failed to qualify for the quarterfinals of both the 100m and 200m sprint events (the former's finals was later dramatized in the film Chariots of Fires). Unfortunately he was never again given the chance to compete at another Olympics. He died at the young age of 39 on September 27, 1939. The country's first olympic medal, a bronze was bagged by Teofilo Yldefonso in the 200 meter breastroke at the 1928 games in 
 Amsterdam. After his Olympic career, he served as a Lieutenant during World War II, where he died at the Capas Concentration Camp in Tarlac. In 1932, the Philippines bronze medal harvest tripled compliments of Simeon Toribio for high jump, José Villanueva for boxing and once again Teofilo Yldefonso who won the same event during the last Olympiad. Perhaps the similar hot summer weather in Los Angeles which hosted the event favored the Filipinos.  Another bronze medal was bagged in the 1936 Berlin games by Miguel White in the 400 meter hurdles. We can be sure that Hitler was not pleased about this half white (pun intended) beating other "pure blooded" Aryan athletes.

The next 20 years proved to be a medal drought for the country. The Philippines was shut out of the medal tally from 1940 to 1960. In 1964, the first silver medal was copped by boxer Anthony Villanueva whose father Cely, a boxer, contributed a bronze in 1932.

Two boxers gave the country a medal each in 1988 and 1992. Mansueto "Onyok" Velasco, whose elder brother Roel won a bronze four years earlier, snatched the second silver medal. Over 68 years and 16 Olympic Games, the Philippines has tallied two (2) silver and seven (7) bronze medals, five from boxers, two from athletics and two from swimming (same swimmer).

The Philippines unofficially has two Olympic gold medals. The first was won by bowler Arianne Cerdena at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. But as fate would have it, her event was being played as a demonstration sport—sports that are getting more popular that host countries are allowed to showcase, but are not counted in the official Olympic tallies. But that shouldn't taint whatever prestige Cerdena's victory has brought to our country. Like other Olympic gold medal winners, Cerdena proved herself worthy of the title Olympic champion after facing and defeating the best and brightest in her sport—the event attracted participants from 20 nations. She should forever be mentioned in the same breath with her fellow Olympic medal winners.

By now, it should be pretty obvious how our Olympic journey has so far been shaped: filled with near-misses, heartbreaks, but not without splendidly courageous performances. Wushu's Willy Wang is the most recent embodiment of that predicament. Wushu, having originated in China, was included as a demonstration sport for the Beijing Olympics. Naturally, we sent our best to compete and, like Arianne Cerdena had done before, we won another demonstration sport gold. Wang won the men's nanquan and nanggun combined event, easily becoming the lone bright spot in our forgettable 2008 Beijing Olympics roster.

Our chase for that elusive gold raises the question why professional boxers are not allowed in the Olympics while allowing those in basketball and tennis to participate. For sure our "Pambansang Kamao" (national fist) Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao  could easily get that 1st official Gold medal for us. We can even throw in Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire  for good measure.

We're quite sure that it won't take until 2040 before we bag that 1st Gold especially as more support and funding go into developing our athletes to compete with the world's best. In the meantime, calling the attention of the Olympic International Committee....how about including Karaoke competition as an official event? Don't worry we'll just be fielding our amateur singers.

Sources : Wikipedia
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