HOTSPOT

The change actually started at Tokyo 2021 with weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz winning the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medal. At Paris 2024, gymnast Carlos Yulo’s two Olympic golds proclaimed Diaz’s achievement wasn’t a fluke.

It is a change that shocks the colonial-minded, the incompetent, the corrupt, and the mediocre to their very core: Filipinos can be Olympic champions. We can win multiple Olympic golds.

Sev Sarmenta spoke for us that night when Yulo won his second gymnastics gold: We thought this was never going to happen.

That nearly 100-year period of being told to settle for less, or to be happy with silvers and bronzes? Thanks to both Diaz and Yulo, that period is over.

This is not to say silvers and bronzes are not any good. We love our silver and bronze medalists, and honor their hard work and determination. They themselves would acknowledge either their weaknesses or their opponents’ superiority in their respective sports.

We used to have a sports program “Go for Gold.” Then, it was aspirational. Now, it is real and realistic.

By the time the babies born this year grow up – many probably named after Hidilyn, Carlos, Aira, or Nesthy – they would always think Filipino athletes can and have won Olympic golds. It would not be a hypothetical, not a fantasy.

It is a world where girls can lift weights, boys can be graceful gymnasts.

This could be a new, golden age for Philippine sports.

This early, the public is demanding commensurate support for Olympians and national athletes: from infrastructure to financing, nutrition to accounting, training to coaching, and more. The demand is directed not just at national and local governments, but also at national sports associations and even private entities.

It could be as simple as this: With our national athletes delivering world championships and our Olympians achieving golds, they deserve world-class support and topnotch services from government, NSAs and others. Hello to a new culture of merit and excellence, of achieving the heights of Olympic glory.

Many would also like to see Philippine sports officials serve our athletes better, modernize operations and processes, and take bold action when necessary.

Steps should be taken to remove unnecessary administrative and accounting chores from national athletes themselves. The controversy between PATAFA and EJ Obiena come to mind.

And by bold action, I’m referring to past incidents like in Tokyo 1964 where a controversial judges’ decision supposedly denied Anthony Villanueva the featherweight gold. A press report said the decision was met with boos from the 7,000 fans who watched the bout.

Mansueto Velasco suffered the same fate in Atlanta 1996’s light flyweight finals, with many sports commentators saying Onyok was robbed of a gold.

Speaking of Onyok, he received his rightful government rewards for his 1996 Olympic silver only in 2021. This kind of maltreatment and negligence should never happen again.

That we achieved Olympic glory in weightlifting and artistic gymnastics – and not basketball – did not go unnoticed. Many are calling for an end to undue bias in favor of certain sports and to gender stereotypes in sports choices, promotion and talent development.

The House of Representatives said it will amend Republic Act 10699 or the National Athletes and Coaches Benefits and Incentives Act, and introduce a life pension for all Olympic medalists starting when they turn 40 or when they retire.

Our national athletes play a big role in this new age heralded by Diaz and Yulo. Their exposure in regional, continental, world, and Olympic levels give them experiences and insights on how to level up what they do, and what we do as a nation.

They could form athletes’ unions and associations to defend their rights and welfare. They could interact with government, NSAs and other entities with the power of their own unions solidly behind them.

The athletes’ strongest allies are the public whose fandom, admiration, commitment and sense of wonder, are undeniable. Sports remains something that can unite us, and nowhere is this more crucial than in supporting athletes’ rights and welfare and grassroots sports development to the hilt.

We also totally do not mind hearing “Lupang Hinirang” played and see the tricolor raised again and repeatedly in future Olympiads.

As Paris 2024 draws, we celebrate the medal offerings and the valiant efforts of all Filipino Olympians, individually and collectively. We have great reasons to celebrate with them: two golds, two bronzes, a new age, and a new mindset for Philippine sports.