Going for the gold

Sports officials didn’t raise public expectations, and our paper’s in-house sports experts told us it would be a miracle if either of the two Philippine athletes bagged a gold at the ongoing Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Still, we’re rooting for the two athletes who are representing the country in the 2018 Winter Games: Filipino-American Alpine skier Asa Miller and figure skater Michael Martinez. Ours is a land of miracles, after all.

The Philippines participated for the first time in the Olympics way back in 1924, at the Summer Games in Paris. We bagged our first medal, a bronze in swimming, in the 1928 Summer Games in Amsterdam.

Since then our Olympic medal tally has been all of 10, half of them in boxing, and none of it a gold. The other medals are for weightlifting, athletics and swimming.

Perhaps we lack the competitive spirit, the killer instinct that crushes anyone who gets in the way of victory, powered by the belief that winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. But how do you then explain the phenomenon of Manny Pacquiao? He has shown that the Filipino athlete can be the world’s best. Perhaps our athletes are right, that they lack support from our government and our sports development program sucks.

We feel the frustration again as we follow the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang.

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Last Tuesday, South Korea’s Ambassador Han Dong-Man, who took up his Manila post only a month ago, visited The STAR office. He recalled that during the Korean War and for several years after it ended, his country was impoverished. Every Korean I have met who lived through those times vividly recalls the hardships, the hunger and the blood that drenched the streets particularly in Seoul.

It’s a measure of the Koreans’ grit, and remarkable recovery from the ravages of civil war, that by 1988, Seoul successfully hosted the Olympic Games for the first time.

Being an Olympic host is a coming-out party for a developing country. Post-Mao Zedong China debuted on the world stage as host of the 2008 Summer Games. This was followed in 2010 by Shanghai’s hosting of the World Expo.

South Korea, despite being colonized and then going through wars and dictatorships, shone early in Olympic sports.

The country first participated in the Olympics in 1948, but boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow and skipped the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo, Norway because of the Korean War.

South Korea won its first Olympic gold in 1976, and now has a total of 320 medals (excluding those in PyeongChang): 116 golds, 104 silvers and 100 bronzes. Its largest gold haul is in archery (23) and for the winter sports, short track speed skating (21). They have no Pacquiao, but the Koreans have three golds in boxing, seven silvers and 10 bronze medals.

If we count all Koreans who have participated in the Olympics, their first gold and bronze medals were actually won in the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin, in the men’s marathon, but Korea was then under Japan and the medal was credited to the Japanese team.

At PyeongChang, South Korea has 122 athletes participating. Hosting the Olympics probably also propels athletes in the host country to excel in their fields and bring honor to the nation.

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Michael Martinez has achieved a record of sorts by becoming the first athlete from tropical Southeast Asia to compete in the Winter Games. It would be even better, of course, if he could bring home a medal.

Sports officials said Martinez’s example opened doors for Philippine participation in more athletic events. There’s no snow in the country, but I guess they’re counting on Filipino expatriates and those of Philippine ancestry around the world to participate, like Asa Miller, under the Philippine flag. Or perhaps the faux ice rinks of SM supermalls will one day produce an Olympian gold medalist in the Winter Games.

If the medals remain elusive, our country should aim to win the privilege of hosting the Summer Games. But under current circumstances, this seems just as tough as bagging an Olympic gold.

South Korea, however, hosted the Summer Games just three decades after the end of its war and the partition of the peninsula. We’ve had more than 70 years to prepare to qualify as Olympic host.

The farthest we have reached in hosting an international sporting event is winning the bid to co-host the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2023 together with Japan and Indonesia. Organizers have stressed that the time to start preparations for the event five years away is now.

The same can be said if we dream of ever hosting the Olympics. For this, preparations should have started years ago. At this point, driving along EDSA and using broadband services or the Metro Rail Transit 3 would instantly disqualify Metro Manila.

Japan, despite having two of its cities obliterated by atomic bombs and its capital firebombed, hosted the Summer Games just two decades after war’s end, in Tokyo in 1964. This was followed by the Winter Games in Sapporo in 1972. Tokyo is hosting the 2020 Summer Games.

One day our country will reach that level of development, although I don’t think I will see the Philippines hosting the Games in my lifetime. But I’m hoping I will still be around to see our first Olympic gold.