Asian Games
Bleacher Talk
Dec. 17, 2006
Asian Games
Assessing the country’s performance at the Asian Games that just ended in is like sounding like a broken long play record. Pardon the generation gap, but it must be MP3’s or CD’s for today’s generation.
The PR campaign hypes that the country had recorded its best Asiad since 1962, thanks to four gold medals. There were also several near-misses and close calls that could’ve added another medal or two. But then again, doesn’t the country’s sports PR team always say the same or a similar thing after each Asiad? And repeat the same words (more or less) after an Olympics or any other international event? Somehow I feel these PR experts need to be more creative with how to say the same thing repeatedly every four years.
For the record, the Philippines recorded a 4-6-9 medal tally (gold-silver-bronze), with the golds coming from boxing’s Violita Payla and Joan Tipon; and one each from wushu (Rene Catalan) and nine-ball (Antonio Gabica). This standing was good for 18th place in the medal standings that was expectedly dominated by China, Korea and Japan.
We ought to congratulate and take our hats off to all the medal winners and the entire Philippine delegation (including those who shouldn’t have gone at all). But as we do this, we also need to take a closer look at a number of items that seems to escape the radar of the country’s PR team.
What they haven’t cited is the fact that among the Southeast Asian countries, we’re only good for fifth behind Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Thailand was very impressive at fifth place, trailing Kazakhstan at fourth. Malaysia was in 11th place; Singapore was # 12, and Hong Kong was # 15. Right below us at # 19 was Vietnam.
This is an important stat since didn’t we crown ourselves so proudly when we won the over-all championship of the last Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) in Manila last year? Isn’t it only logical that if we were truly the top dog of the SEAG, shouldn’t we have at least done better than our neighbors at the Asian Games? Hmmm. Just asking.(?)
This is where the broken record repeats itself and gets to be so “redundundant” that it’s getting to be an over-chewed chewing gum already. You’ll hear politicians speak out at how rotten our sports programs are. You’ll here critics and “experts” question the results and ask for reforms in the system (as if there was one). And I guess Bleacher Talk is no exception!
Every time our teams return from international competitions where we don’t do too well, we always ask, “What went wrong? Why didn’t we hit our targets?” We’ve become experts at finding reasons (or excuses?) for not doing well, but never seem to take that concrete next step to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
And one factor that Bleacher Talk has always cited is the lack of a genuine national sports program that reaches down to two things: the youth and the grassroots. Moreover, we still don’t have a program that prepares for our Philippine teams for the long term when in fact all these international competitions are always there, scheduled way in advance.
The irony of it all is that everyone knows that the SEAG is held every other year, while the Olympics and the Asian Games are held every four years. While this is already a regular “given” in the world of sports, the country’s preparation for these big international events is the exact opposite. We usually prepare at the last minute, with the exception of a few sports. Up ahead, we have the Southeast Asian Games in 2007 and the Beijing Olympics in 2008. And you can bet that while our sports leaders are already talking about preparing for these games, they’re most likely still figuring out how to do it.
Preparations for big events such as the Olympics, Asian Games and the various world championships of different sports should be starting with athletes who are still starting to learn the sport as early or young as eight years old (some say even younger!). Where are these programs that develop a sport that start with the fun mood of kiddie games, through the formative and developmental of the teen years, and all the way to the elite level? Our leaders always brag about their so-called grassroots development programs that reach out to the probinsya in search of the country’s future world beaters. May I ask where are the fruits of all these?
And so another Asian Games has passed with the next edition due in 2010. Somewhere in between, there’s the SEAG in 2007 and the Beijing Olympics in 2008. And as the cycle goes, so does the vicious cycle called Philippine sports.
**
Time-out: The start of the “simbang gabi” novena masses are here. Are we also “here,” present and ready for the arrival of the MVP of all MVP’s? >>> You can reach me at bleachertalk@yahoo.com.
Dec. 17, 2006
Asian Games
Assessing the country’s performance at the Asian Games that just ended in is like sounding like a broken long play record. Pardon the generation gap, but it must be MP3’s or CD’s for today’s generation.
The PR campaign hypes that the country had recorded its best Asiad since 1962, thanks to four gold medals. There were also several near-misses and close calls that could’ve added another medal or two. But then again, doesn’t the country’s sports PR team always say the same or a similar thing after each Asiad? And repeat the same words (more or less) after an Olympics or any other international event? Somehow I feel these PR experts need to be more creative with how to say the same thing repeatedly every four years.
For the record, the Philippines recorded a 4-6-9 medal tally (gold-silver-bronze), with the golds coming from boxing’s Violita Payla and Joan Tipon; and one each from wushu (Rene Catalan) and nine-ball (Antonio Gabica). This standing was good for 18th place in the medal standings that was expectedly dominated by China, Korea and Japan.
We ought to congratulate and take our hats off to all the medal winners and the entire Philippine delegation (including those who shouldn’t have gone at all). But as we do this, we also need to take a closer look at a number of items that seems to escape the radar of the country’s PR team.
What they haven’t cited is the fact that among the Southeast Asian countries, we’re only good for fifth behind Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Thailand was very impressive at fifth place, trailing Kazakhstan at fourth. Malaysia was in 11th place; Singapore was # 12, and Hong Kong was # 15. Right below us at # 19 was Vietnam.
This is an important stat since didn’t we crown ourselves so proudly when we won the over-all championship of the last Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) in Manila last year? Isn’t it only logical that if we were truly the top dog of the SEAG, shouldn’t we have at least done better than our neighbors at the Asian Games? Hmmm. Just asking.(?)
This is where the broken record repeats itself and gets to be so “redundundant” that it’s getting to be an over-chewed chewing gum already. You’ll hear politicians speak out at how rotten our sports programs are. You’ll here critics and “experts” question the results and ask for reforms in the system (as if there was one). And I guess Bleacher Talk is no exception!
Every time our teams return from international competitions where we don’t do too well, we always ask, “What went wrong? Why didn’t we hit our targets?” We’ve become experts at finding reasons (or excuses?) for not doing well, but never seem to take that concrete next step to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
And one factor that Bleacher Talk has always cited is the lack of a genuine national sports program that reaches down to two things: the youth and the grassroots. Moreover, we still don’t have a program that prepares for our Philippine teams for the long term when in fact all these international competitions are always there, scheduled way in advance.
The irony of it all is that everyone knows that the SEAG is held every other year, while the Olympics and the Asian Games are held every four years. While this is already a regular “given” in the world of sports, the country’s preparation for these big international events is the exact opposite. We usually prepare at the last minute, with the exception of a few sports. Up ahead, we have the Southeast Asian Games in 2007 and the Beijing Olympics in 2008. And you can bet that while our sports leaders are already talking about preparing for these games, they’re most likely still figuring out how to do it.
Preparations for big events such as the Olympics, Asian Games and the various world championships of different sports should be starting with athletes who are still starting to learn the sport as early or young as eight years old (some say even younger!). Where are these programs that develop a sport that start with the fun mood of kiddie games, through the formative and developmental of the teen years, and all the way to the elite level? Our leaders always brag about their so-called grassroots development programs that reach out to the probinsya in search of the country’s future world beaters. May I ask where are the fruits of all these?
And so another Asian Games has passed with the next edition due in 2010. Somewhere in between, there’s the SEAG in 2007 and the Beijing Olympics in 2008. And as the cycle goes, so does the vicious cycle called Philippine sports.
**
Time-out: The start of the “simbang gabi” novena masses are here. Are we also “here,” present and ready for the arrival of the MVP of all MVP’s? >>> You can reach me at bleachertalk@yahoo.com.
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