Filipino Sports Stars in the Land of the Rising Sun
/Under circumstances only Charles Dickens or Albert Camus could have created in “A Tale of Two Cities” or “The Plague,” the premier sports spectacle in the world, the quadrennial Olympic Games, carried on in the face of a global pandemic. The postponed Games should also be known as the “imposed” Olympic Games (a set of Games imposed upon a Japanese public who as of early July, polled 60%+ favored just cutting their losses and canceling the Games altogether.) But no, the International Olympic Committee (and the world’s broadcasting companies who footed most of the bill), coerced Japan into living up to its contractual commitments, force majeure or act of God notwithstanding. Irresponsibly, as they say in show biz, the show must go on. And it foolishly did.
Against such a turbulent background, the latest and perhaps, most rewarding chapter in the Philippines’ Olympic participation history for Filipino fans was Philippine Team’s haul of Olympic medals, the largest after 97 years of competing in the Modern Era Games. This success provided much needed thrills amid the dire pandemic situation in the Philippines. For Filipinos, Olympic gold had always been the elusive one—until now. Finally, our Pearl of the Orient Seas struck Olympic gold, a pair of silvers, and one bronze.
Meet the Tokyo 2020ne class of Filipino Olympic medalists:
1. Hidilyn Diaz – Gold, Weighlifting, 55Kg
On the surface, it may seem one of those “huh?” sports, which are over in the blink of an eye. The output for a weightlifter to strut her/his stuff to win a medal is one of the fastest, shortest times to execute your effort, lasting no more than five seconds. It’s seems like coming-out-from backstage-and-walking-back-in takes longer and more effort. Only a rifle or an arrow shot, the toss of a javelin, or a shot put are the other less-than-10-second moments of actual competition in the Olympic Games.
It was in Weightlifting that the Philippines struck its first Olympic gold, with Hidilyn Diaz who had won silver previously at the last Games in Rio 2016. This is one of the riskiest sports in terms of possible, long-term muscular, and spinal injuries and, because the stage requires the ability to withstand the endless dropping of 200+ pounds of steel onto the surface, every weightlifting venue requires one of the strongest, most reinforced floors of all. It’s not quite like you or me hurling our 9-ounce cell phone on the floor in a pique of anger.
In order to appreciate the efforts weightlifters like Diaz put into their sport, one has to understand the very quick concepts of “Snatch” and “Clean and Jerk”
Weightlifters have one minute to pick up the bar from the floor. Once you begin the lift, the bar must continue in an upward motion. For the Snatch part, your elbows have to lock out (no press out) and no other part of the body must touch the platform. In the “Clean” motion, again, no other part of your body may touch the platform other than your feet and -- the elbows cannot come in contact with one’s knees while in the bottom of the squat. In the “Jerk,” you cannot have any deviation in the elbows and no other part of the body may touch the floor (not even the knee in the back) save the feet, of course.
A lifter gets 3 attempts at each lift, always starting with the Snatch. You then have to wait to receive 2 out of 3 “white lights” (votes from the 3 judges). The judges view the movement and vote with a “good lift” or a “no lift,” and once control is shown at the end of the lift, you must wait for their call before you can release the bar from overhead. Once the lift is cleared “good,” the athlete can then go on to increase the weight by increments of one (1) kilo each*.
Weightlifting is a post-WW2 baby of the Olympics. It first showed up at the London 1948 Games, obviously, as a men’s only event. It was not until Sydney 2000 that women could bench-press and clean-and-jerk in the Games, which officially celebrated the 100 years of female participation.
Hidilyn Diaz, the Golden Pinay of Tokyo 2020ne.
It’s been a long road for Diaz, the fifth of six children of a farmer/fisherman and a housewife, from far away Zamboanga. Diaz, now 30, has been attracted to the sport since childhood. She learned the ropes from a cousin who was an enthusiast. They improvised the equipment by using concrete blocks molded from tin cans and plastic PVC pipes for the bar.
In 2020, Diaz was training in Malaysia when the announcement of the Tokyo Games’ cancellation and the lockdown of the Philippines due to Covid came. Soon, the budget for the 55-day training period from the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) would be exhausted and she and her team might be stranded away from home. Quickly, she made an appeal to the Manuel V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation (MVPSF), which came through with the funds to bring Diaz and her team home. She used the one-year postponement of the Games to her advantage.
Diaz recounts that she tried lifting what would be the winning weight of 127 kgs (297.98 lbs) once before in training and failed. Lifting it on July 26, 2021 was the first time she had done so successfully.
When she is not in the gym lifting weights, Diaz is a staff sergeant in the Philippine Air Force, which is why she saluted the flag (even out of uniform) when the flag was raised and the national anthem “Lupang Hinirang” was played, per Olympic protocol, in her moment of Olympic glory.
The Material Payback
Of course, the gritty world of weightlifting is a far cry from the runway-sashaying world of beauty queens that most contemporary Filipinos thrill to and live and die for. Unlike basketball or windsailing or boxing, weightlifting does not offer bountiful contracts; thus, it is one of those sports that you struggle and persevere in and hope against hope that some material rewards may come at the end. The International Olympic Committee offers medals only and no cash prizes. As in ancient Greece and as recently as in the case of the first marathon runner at Athens 1896 who was Greek, the various governments and well-heeled patrons step in to fulfill the material rewards end of the “glory for the homeland” equation.
Diaz, the first Filipino Olympic gold medalist in history, she did it for the love of the sport and for country, and winning the medal makes up for the sacrifices she had to make.
Under Philippine Republic Act 10699, an Olympic gold medalist is awarded Php ten million pesos through the PSC. In addition, tycoons Ramon Ang and Manny Pangilinan threw in another Php ten million each. Speaker of the House Mikee Romero added another Php 3 million (hopefully out of his own pocket). There’s a Php 14 million condominium in Eastwood City from Megaworld, an SUV from Ayala Corp., a house and lot from another real estate developer, a lifetime Php 10,000,000 policy from ManuLife, and tons of free flights from Air Asia and Philippines Airlines – hopefully, all tax-free. Hopefully, Diaz and her loved ones are now materially set for life.
Then, of course, we have the boxers. Like past Filipino Olympic victories which usually came in pairs, there is a pair of boxing medals – a silver and a bronze.
2. Nesthy Petecio, Silver, Boxing – Featherweight Class
Similar riches awaited boxer Nesthy Petecio, also from far away Davao del Sur, when she became the first Filipina boxer to bring home a silver medal, losing the historic Women’s Featherweight title match because her opponent was Sena Irie, who was also making some history of her own by being the first female Japanese boxer to reach the finals. Generally, and sadly for Petecio, in judged sports, a home court advantage favors the native athlete.
Women’s Boxing made its Olympic debut only three Olympic Games ago, in London 2012. Petecio is only one year younger than Diaz, and at 29, won her first Olympic Games.
Silver medalist Nesthy Petecio (Photo by Luis Robayo/Reuters)
3. Carlo Paalam, Silver, Boxing, Flyweight Class
Paalam, not only had to deal with extreme poverty in his youth, but also came with a dubious surname, Paalam (which, of course, means goodbye in Pilipino). Paalam at 23, is the youngest of the Philippines’ 2020 Olympic medalists. He hails from a poor family in Cagayan de Oro.
Carlo was forced to be a scavenger in the landfills. He won his first boxing match at a local tournament at only seven years old and used the winnings to buy rice. It was at these local “Boxing at the Park” matches that CdO officials took notice of the feisty budding pugilist, enough for them to give him a monthly allowance and help get him through school. Carlo eventually was scouted by the national team.
Like Petecio, he punched his way to the title match in Tokyo and put up a good fight. Unfortunately, he was outclassed by the stronger British boxer. He looked pretty battered.
Carlo Paalam, Tokyo 2020ne Flyweight silver medalist (Source: Inquirer.net)
4. Eumir Marcial, Bronze, Boxing, Middleweight Class
Even before being named to the Tokyo 2020 Philippine Olympic team, Marcial shares many attributes with the first two winners above. Like Diaz, he not only comes from Zamboanga, but also serves in the Philippine Air Force. Like Petecio, he studied at the University of Baguio.
Marcial had already done some professional bouts before joining the Philippine team for Tokyo. He is a protégé of Manny Pacquiao and is coached by Senator Pacquiao’s long-time coach, Freddie Roach, who will probably guide him to a long and successful boxing career.
Eumir Marcial
The 2020 Pinoy boxers will be getting about half of what Diaz will be getting for their efforts from a grateful nation and countrymen.
Slumdog Millionaires and Rocky Balboa
Like every tough “Cinder(f)ella” tale, the one common thread of Filipino (and many developing country Olympic athletes) is their hardscrabble story of overcoming backgrounds of the most abject of circumstances and poverty to achieve their dreams. Against all odds, thousands of wannabee Olympic dreamers grunt, grind, sweat, grovel, give up many immediate pleasures each year in pursuit of the Holy Grail of Olympic hardware. It’s the story of Slumdog Millionaire and Rocky Balboa, all rolled into one. This class of Tokyo 2020 Filipino medalists, they share another strange commonality. Like two of the most famous men at the top of Philippine power structure now, President Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Manny Pacquaio, they all come from the southern parts of Mindanao—Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao del Sur!
Looking back, it is understandably strange that in Olympic matters, the Philippines seems to do well in the more “controversial” sports. Due to negative aspects connected with certain sports; e.g., the high use of banned anabolic steroids (weightlifting and boxing) or partial judging (wrestling, even, the glamorous “sport” of figure skating, and boxing again), some sports are forever on the verge of being booted out of the Games every Olympic cycle. More than the other sports, they are heavily monitored and re-evaluated very strictly each time. Yet these are where Filipino athletes seem to perform well traditionally. So, yeah, we seem to be, as they say, living on the edge, but we’ll take ‘em where and when we can!
From the Victoria Manalo Draves File
One of the nice things about being an immigrant, or having dual citizenship, is that come Olympics time, you have at least two flags to cheer for—the old and the new. For the gold-medal victory of Lee Keifer who represented the USA in Fencing, we shall have to take a page from the Vicky Manalo Draves file.
Already featured extensively in the www.PostiivelyFilipino.com series of Fil Ams Among the Remarkable and Famous, Part 24 (lst week), Keifer hails from and grew up in blue-grass country of Lexington, Kentucky. Her provenance in Fencing is deep. Her father, Steve, was a captain in fencing at Duke University; an older sister, Alex, was an NCAA champion at Harvard; her younger brother, Axel, has competed in junior worlds, and her husband, Gerek Meinhardt, is also an active fencer.
Keifer is Filipina by her mother, Teresa, a Philippine-born psychiatrist.
Mother and daughter, Lee and Teresa Keifer.
Foil is one of three disciplines (saber and epee being the other two) in fencing, and each has its own rules and styles. Essentially, what one needs to understand in foil is that a point can be scored only with the tip of the blade in the torso area. Hits to the arms, legs, neck, and head are illegal. In epee, a point can be scored anywhere, but points can be more difficult to score because epee swords weigh approximately 27 ounces, whereas foil swords are less than a pound and are easier to maneuver. The mask covering a fencer’s head is electronically wired to record hits.
While saber is the quickest, most aggressive style of fencing, epee is the most defensive, requiring high skills to stop an opponent attempting to score a point. Counter moves are crucial. Foil combines the offense of saber and defense of epee. It’s fencing’s great balancing act between epee and saber. Foil is the weapon most new fencers begin with.
Close, But No Cigar
And then, of course, there are those who tried and failed. For every Olympic gold, silver or bronze medal earned and given out, there are hundreds of athletes around the world who coveted that prize and wanted it, too. Unfortunately, there are those who crashed and burned. Pinoy hopes for other athletes were dashed for the following:
High hopes were pinned on Carlos Edriel Yulo in Gymnastics, who had won a stunning gold at the Gymnastic World Championships in 2019, which is usually a precursor to an athlete’s chance in the upcoming Olympic Games. Yulo missed a medal in vault by coming in fourth.
Boxer Irish Magno was eliminated in Round 16; in Golf, Bianca Pangdanganan got as far as #7 in a field of 60, while Yuka Saso did not parlay her Japanese heritage to home-court advantage. Oh well, there will be future competitions.
The Games Seen Through the Female Lens
In the bigger picture, several really important, larger-than-life mindsets emerged from these controversial Games:
One, while female participation in the modern era Games was officially commemorated at Sydney 2000, when for the first time in history the final cadre of torch lighters to enter the stadium were all female Aussie athletes, it was only now in Tokyo 2020 that cold, hard numbers bore out the gender-equalizing claims. Going into the Games, the ratio of athletes accredited to compete in the Games was 51 percent women to 49 percent men—truly a historic first.
For the third time in history, the Organizing Committee was headed by a woman (replacing a man who had made sexist remarks and had the decency to “fall on his sword.” Oddly enough, it was at Athens 2004, in the very land where these Games started out as strictly male-only events where they had a woman, Gianna Angeloupoulos-Daskalaki, at the helm of the organization of the 2004 Games from the very outset.) Other “women”-first Olympic factoids resulting from Tokyo 2020:
• The highest number of (new) mixed-gender events in competition was instituted, including such breakthroughs as allowing women to be coxswains in the Men’s Rowing events, because women are generally lighter than men. Of course, unless they found an extremely small and skinny male, a reverse arrangement probably would not work in a woman’s boat. (A “coxswain” is the person facing forward, usually with a bullhorn, calling out the beat and direction of the boat while all the rowers face backwards.)
• Referees at Tokyo 2020 were also now mixed (even in Basketball).
• More women athletes won more medals than the men—for the 626 member-US Team, 164 American women got onto the medal podia vs. 93 men.
• Oldest and youngest Olympians: 13-year-old skateboarder Nishiya Momiji of Japan and 14-year old diver Quan Hongchan, both female, became the two known, youngest gold medalists in history, winning at the same Games (while the oldest living Olympian and medalist as of 2021 is 100-year-old Agnes Keleti, gymnast of Hungary, featured at the Opening Ceremony).
• While there have been female mayors to hand over or to receive the Olympic flag at Closing Ceremonies in the past, this was the first time in the modern era Olympics’ 125-year history that the flag exchange took place between the mayors of the outgoing and incoming Olympic host cities who both happened to be women!
The historic Olympic Flag exchange between the first two female mayors of the once and future Olympic host cities, Tokyo 2020ne and Paris 2024.
There was also more awareness of the female form and how the intended or unintended sexuality was portrayed on global television coverage. The broadcast arm of the IOC did informally acknowledge that they would be more aware of sexually-loaded images/camera angles of female athletes and would monitor themselves and minimize awkwardly suggestive angles. This may account for another probable “first” observed—camera-women operating Olympic TV cameras.
As for female sporting attire, the lady German gymnasts (why can’t they be called Gerwomen?) opted for the unitard, which was not the preferred outfit of competition of the FIG federation. Nonetheless, the Germans were not penalized, but the question persists: Did it improve or impede their gymnastic performance?
Top, full-body unitards that female German gymnasts wore in defiance of the more traditional, skimpy leotards – right, which the Federations preferred and would have made Salome salivate with envy.
Body-hugging attire is, of course, more aerodynamic and allows for unimpeded athleticism. Still, the perky lady gymnasts throw in seductive, come-hither moves in their floor/dance routines—and together with figure skating, this makes sure the sequin industries are alive, thriving and healthy. But then again, bikinis seem so right for the very sandy Beach Volleyball.
Acceptable New Mindsets
Another breakthrough was the acknowledgment of the almost impossible weight of expectation put upon highly favored athletes and that it was OK to own it and step away from it. The more important guardrails are common sense and personal safety. If in doubt about one’s ability to perform safely, as exemplified by US gymnast Simone Biles, it is OK to listen to your inner gut and walk away. But if it hadn’t been for such a decorated athlete as Biles to manifest this, it might not have been as well received.
Motherhood was OK, too. It is now entirely achievable and possible for dedicated athletes to take time off, become mothers and resume their athletic passions or whatever there is left.
Most importantly, these Games have also put the paramount dream of winning a gold medal in proper perspective. It’s OK to also get a silver or a bronze or, even none at all. There is no shame if you go home with lighter luggage. After all, the reviver of the modern Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, reminds us: “The important thing in life is not to triumph but to compete.” So, to all the strivers in life, it’s OK to dream of those shiny baubles around your neck, but it’s completely OK too if you went home with one of the mascot dolls—so long as you tried your best, enjoyed the journey and know that you came out a better person for it after all.
But with participation and other numbers between the genders now reaching ideal parity, I still question why two of the most beautiful and difficult sports on the summer Olympic slate, have stayed “women only”? Those are Artistic Swimming (rebranded from the former Synchronized Swimming) and Rhythmic Gymnastics. Why have these two sports remained “ladies only”?
Consistency, please. “Synchronized Swimming” has been rebranded as “Artistic Swimming” but in Gymnas-tics, what the lay person would identify as “Artistic Gymnastics” (right photo, with the ribbons, balls, hoops and clubs) stays as “Rhythmic Gymnastics” while the traditional tumbling, more sweaty Gymnastics (bars, vault, pommel horse, etc.) is called “Artistic Gymnastics”? What gives, sports people?
Can our Filipina athletes do this in the 2024 Parisian waters? Nothing is impossible.
Tokyo 2020 is now history. Team Pinoy wrote a shining new chapter in its athletic annals. In three years’ time, Paris 2024 will see the debut of Breakdancing as a competitive sport. So maybe Filipin-X teams can wow them with a Pandanggo sa Ilaw routine in Artistic Swimming? Or in Rhythmic Gymnastics? Oo la la. That should really dazzle them in the City of Light no less.
How did the Tokyo 2020 experiment fare vis-a-vis the menace of the Covid pandemic? Surprisingly well. Considering nearly 11,000 athletes were herded in the Olympic Village, another 10,000+ coaches, officials, referees and global press in other hotels, bused to some 25 competition venues and some 60 training sites, in a metropolis of 23 million, in a small country of 126 million people with low vaccination rates at the outset, only about 2,500 on average new cases of Covid were reported each day of the Games. Of course, that was a national figure – so not confined to the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area, the hub of Olympic activity. So spread was indeed contained, and the Games could not be entirely blamed as the source of more infection, especially as the Japanese hosts ended up third in the overall medals tally!
Next stops for Team Pinoy? The Paralympics in Tokyo again from August 24 to September 5, 2021. Then, the XXIV Winter Games in Beijing next February in which we might have two athletes qualifying. Then July next year will be the IAAF World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, where pole-vaulter EJ Obiena might perhaps hoist the Philippine flag again – a lead up to Paris 2024!
SOURCES:
Hidilyn Diaz to receive P33 million for historic Olympic gold - YouTube (Rappler – best narrative so far)
Weightlifter wins Philippines' first ever Olympic gold medal (msn.com)
Nesthy Petecio: From poverty and prize-fighting to Olympic podium (olympics.com)
Gallant Nesthy Petecio settles for silver against Japanese champ | 24 Oras - YouTube
Who is Eumir Marcial? (esquiremag.ph)
Carlo Paalam to take home P17 million for Olympic silver – Manila Bulletin (mb.com.ph)
Meet Courageous Ágnes Keleti - The World's Oldest Olympian (thecarousel.com)
High Jump - Top high jumpers decide to SHARE gold in instant-classic final | Tokyo Olympics | NBC Sports - YouTube
US women are dominating medal count at Tokyo Olympics in ways they've never done before (msn.com)
Tokyo logs record 2,848 daily COVID-19 cases amid Olympics | ABS-CBN News
Closing ceremony wraps Tokyo 2020 after Team USA tops medal table (msn.com)
Myles A. Garcia is a Correspondent and regular contributor to www.positivelyfilipino.com. He has written three books:
· Secrets of the Olympic Ceremonies (latest edition, 2021);
· Thirty Years Later . . . Catching Up with the Marcos-Era Crimes (© 2016); and
· Of Adobo, Apple Pie, and Schnitzel With Noodles (© 2018)—all available in paperback from amazon.com (Australia, USA, Canada, UK and Europe).
Myles is also a member of the International Society of Olympic Historians, contributing to the ISOH Journal, and pursuing dramatic writing lately. For any enquiries: razor323@gmail.com
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