PHILIPPINE Sports Commission Chairman Butch Ramirez yesterday said the country’s overall performance in the 31st Vietnam Southeast Asian Games was nothing to be ashamed of, adding it was in fact a good finish considering the challenges Filipino bets had to face in the build-up to the meet.
“Our performance in bringing home 52 gold, 70 silver, and 104 bronze medals in placing fourth overall was a good finish despite the various challenges our national athletes had to face amid the pandemic before competing in Vietnam,” Ramirez said.
“It would have been a very good finish had we converted 50 percent of our silvers (to gold) and bronzes (to silver),” added Ramirez, who closely monitored the progress of the country’s standard-bearers in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi and surrounding provinces.
He pointed out that funding training programs to develop elite athletes for international competition was expensive.
“You need money for coaches, both local and foreign, airfare, transportation and hotel for international exposure to season them, plus the logistical support like proper nutrition, sports psychology, and medicine for athletes discovered abroad or locally,” Ramirez explained.
Having been in the PSC as a commissioner in 1998, then as chairman for the first time from 2005 to 2009, and then as chairman anew from 2016 to the present, he said four years are needed for short-term programs and 12 years to develop athletes so they could be truly world-class, as long as they start young.
He pointed to weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, a wildcard entry at 17 years old in the 2008 Beijing Olympics who won a silver in the 2016 Rio Games. She finally delivered the country’s first gold medal in the Tokyo edition last year when she was 30.
Ramirez also reminded everyone that the government’s sports agency’s mandate is not only to support national athletes but also to implement a genuine grassroots sports program in the countryside in cooperation with the Department of Education and local government units.
“The PSC will never achieve its grassroots goals without our partners in the DepEd and LGUs,” he said.
Ramirez also renewed his commitment and support “to our private partners, the Philippine Olympic Committee and the National Sports Associations,” in promoting and nurturing athletes for international play.
He said that while the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. has given the PSC high remittances before the pandemic, “the PSC still has to get the five percent of its gross income as required by Republic Act 6847 that created the government sports agency.”
