Goldless society

In 1924, the Philippines first participated in the Olympics and every edition after, except in 1980 when we joined the US-led boycott of the Moscow Games to protest Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan. In 1928, Teofilo Yldefonso won our first medal, a bronze in the 200m breaststroke.

In 1932, we snatched three bronze medals. Simeon Toribio high jumped to third place, bantamweight Jose Villanueva slugged to bronze and Teofilo Yldefonso reprised his podium finish four years earlier, the first and only Filipino double Olympic medalist. Baffling why his swim win has never been duplicated by a country of seven thousand islands surrounded with water, high tide or low tide.

Miguel White, whose father is American, hurdled to bronze in the 400m four years later to win our second and last track and field medal. Another Fil-Am hurdler, Eric Cray may not be able to resurrect him but EJ Obiena, the first Filipino to qualify for Tokyo and ranked among world best, has realistic chance to medal in pole vault.

In 1964, Anthony Villanueva ended a three decade medal drought, turned his father’s bronze into silver, the first time we came close, only to be blanked for 24 years. Light flyweight Leopoldo Serrantes brought us back to the medal tally with a bronze in 1988. Four years later, Roel Velasco boxed to another bronze that his younger brother Onyok Velasco would improve to silver in 1996. A 20-year dry spell ensued until weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz won silver in the 53kg division in 2016, becoming the first and only Filipina to medal in Olympics. The last man to stand atop the podium is a woman, poised to turn her silver to gold in Tokyo next year.

We won ten medals, none gold. In Southeast Asia, we are the earliest to join the Olympics. Most of our regional rivals followed way too late, in 1952. But look at how far they’ve gone. Thailand tops with 33 medals, with 9 golds from boxing and weightlifting. Indonesia won 32 with 7 golds, all from badminton. Malaysia has 11 medals, without gold, but has 7 silvers. Singapore and Vietnam have fewest medals at 5 but each won gold in swimming and shooting, respectively. Philippine sports grew old, but never grew up.

One reason why we settle for crumbs is our obsession with a sport where height is might. Basketball is one of the most popular sports. But within context of global excellence, it doesn’t belong to a vertically challenged race. Not even mixed race brought us anywhere near world class standards. Our podium history proves we could win in weight categorized sports that level the field. Exactly why our regional counterparts are winning gold via boxing and weightlifting. Archery and shooting too, where height is out of equation, but precision, which gymnast Carlos Yulo is spot on.

China became powerhouse because sports development is state priority, with more than a billion gene pool to mine gold from. We do not lack for a long-term sports development program but somehow we get lost in translation. But even if we haven’t won gold, we have the crown at least. Last week we just topped our regional neighbors in terms of active Covid-19 cases and came close to Indonesia in total number of cases.

In sports and in health, there is something wrong somewhere in the country. Those who choose to be blind may never see us doing anything wrong, but surely our neighbors are doing something right. Figure it out by looking at the figures.