Olympic spirit on campus

While over 10,000 athletes are living their Olympic dream in Paris, the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde is celebrating the same spirit on campus with two milestone events that were recently held to honor the Filipinos who proudly represented the country in the Summer Games.

The first event was the staging of the OLY Recognition to athletes by the Philippine Olympians Association (POA) in a ceremony at Benilde’s Sports and Dormitory Complex, a five-storey building on San Isidro Drive in between the cities of Pasay and Manila. On hand to award the distinctions were PSC commissioner Walter Torres, POA president Akiko Thomson-Guevara and POA treasurer Stephen Fernandez. It’s no accident that Fernandez also happens to be Benilde’s Center for Sports Development director. Fernandez bagged a bronze medal for the Philippines at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when taekwondo was still a demo sport and coached the La Salle taekwondo team for 24 years.

The honorees were judo’s Benjamin McMurray and fencer Percival Ager who both participated in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, swimmers Christine Jacob-Sandejas (1984), Rene Concepcion (1988) and Jesse Lacuna (2010 Youth Olympics, 2012, 2016) and taekwondo’s Kirstie Elaine Alora (2016). Alora was accompanied by her mentor Roberto Cruz, Benilde’s taekwondo coach who was previously awarded OLY Recognition for his participation in the 2000 Sydney Games. Alora is now coaching the Philippine taekwondo junior team and Benilde varsity jins. The awardees took the Filipino Olympian’s oath and vowed to promote the ideals and develop the values of vision, focus, commitment and discipline of the Olympic movement.

Fernandez said the OLY Recognition is a way to inspire aspiring talents to keep training with determination and focus. “You just have to listen, work hard and strive,” he said. “If success comes along the way, you just have to return or give back whenever possible.” Giving back is what Alora is doing as a Benilde Export Management alumna. “I think this is also a way of sharing all my learnings and passing it to the next generation,” she noted.

Benilde strategic adviser Edu Jarque, who has served in the school’s Board of Trustees, said, “We hope this may motivate our athletes to further strive to achieve their goals.”

In another Olympic-related event, Jarque announced that the country’s first Olympic gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz has joined Benilde’s Council of Advisers and will closely assist in overseeing the direction of the Bachelor in Holistic Disciplines program. “We hope this piece of news inspires our athletes to give back, to add meaning to their long list of accomplishments,” said Jarque. Diaz received the appointment in an induction ceremony at Benilde’s Atrium. Benilde School of Multidisciplinary Studies Dean Basilia Blay welcomed Diaz to the prestigious Council during the rites.