This is the week. It is crunch time,
for the organizers in Tokyo, and the athlete delegations from all around the
world, who are gathering in the capital of a nation still embattled in the
pandemic, to get the already-delayed Summer Olympic Games underway come Friday.
In an environment with overkill safety and security measures to ensure the
competitors, officials and staff will be safe from widespread infection that no
spectators are allowed in venues, Team Philippines is taking stock of its
qualified athletes, and the organizers from this end are pretty sure that the
delegation is the best yet.
The Philippine Star reports that the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC)
is confident in their assessment that the 19 qualified athletes representing
this country at the Tokyo Olympics that will open on July 23 are the “sturdiest
and most prepared” delegation ever formed in years that the Philippines have
been part of the event. PSC chairman William Ramirez notes that the commission
has been assembling the participants since the Rio Olympics in 2016, and that
they have not been shortchanged in what funds they needed to get the athletes
well beyond up to snuff for competition.
“The government poured the people’s
money into it here,” says Ramirez during an online briefing this past Sunday, July
19. He mentioned no less than P2 billion being funneled to the training and
development of nearly a hundred Filipino Olympic hopefuls covering 18 different
sports. In the end the delegation is fielding 19, tried and tested. “We spent
billions, because that’s the way we should prepare our athletes.” Ramirez
continues, citing a time in past Olympic outings where national representatives
were left to fund themselves. That number is also one of the largest number of
athletes the country has fielded where recent Olympics are concerned.
Of course, the public funding to
prepare the likes of gymnast Carlos Yulo, boxer Nesthy Petecio, skater girl Margielyn
Didal, and Rio silver medalist weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, can come across as a
double-edged sword. They were helped to get where they are by the Filipino people’s
money, as PSC chair Ramirez puts it, so the pressure and expectations are even
bigger. He is not overly worried however. While the Philippine athlete has been
proven medal-capable in the Olympics, in Tokyo this will, as Ramirez sees it,
be the time when Olympic gold is more than a dream for Pinoy Olympians.
Tokyo’s Summer Olympics will run
from July 23 to August 8, with 339 events in 33 sports, five of which are
debuting in these Games.
Image courtesy of CNN Philippines
0 comments:
Post a Comment