I remember writing my very first column for our high school paper in 1999. The title? Quest for the elusive Olympic gold. Unfortunately, I don’t have my copy anymore since it was mistakenly thrown into the garbage bin thinking it was one of those old newspapers stacked in our house.

Honestly, I would prefer if this post didn’t sound like it used to when I wrote the column in high school but sad to say, the Philippines has yet to break the Gold medal tally in any of the Olympics we have been part of. And yes, I reckon this will look exactly the same back then.

So the questions follow: Why can’t we get a firm grasp on even a single Olympic gold medal? Is it because Filipino genes are not good enough for intense international competition? Or supposing that we have the genetic make-up of sports heroes, we don’t get enough exposure to proper training and nutrition? Or is it because of the great trait of Philippine politics (otherwise known as corruption)?

The safest answer as usual is to say that it is a mixture of all those mentioned, or even more. But we have been playing it safe for so long already that we are banking on luck to give us the glory. That coveted olympic gold. Being vague does not help us at all, we need to attack the root of this unfruitful quest and eradicate it from our system. It is easier said than done, but let us also take into consideration that well-planned and unibiased plans of action, more often than not, leads to a more efficient, more successful and a lot better results.

Filipinos have the genes to match-up with anyone in the world and beat them. The problem is, athletes are sometimes contented on just taking the flight to the games, visit the tourist sites, take pictures, play with no desire to win, and then fly back home. Now, why don’t they have the drive to play their hearts out? Because Filipino athletes are built to fail. We “invest” on physical training but not mental prowess. No matter how hard one athlete trains, we have the mindset of inferior people so we don’t really mind if we lose. If some people do mind losing, we’re so tired of it that we just try to get the best out of the situation, which is basically travel and photography.

The above statement boils down to finances. We have physical experts, but nothing’s left for those who can shape up the mind. We are cheap investors in sports. I suggest that instead of giving promises of Php 2 million to gold medal winners, we readily invest that money on training and other essentials. That way, athletes will be well prepared for competitions even outside of the Olympics.

Now, why don’t we have enough to finance excellent training regimens for our athletes? As the obvious reason for almost all Philippine debacles, we just can’t take off Philippine politics from the list. Our leadership barely provides the essentials, but they demand instant and big-time results. If they are assuming that building the too familiar covered basketball court (with their big names anywhere you turn) per barangay is good enough for the advancement of Philippine sports, they should think again.

If only our athletes can experience the same support given to Manny Pacquiao by Chavit Singson and the Arroyos, or the support to the ALA Boys by the Aldeguers, or the unprecedented care of fighting cocks by the Alvarez’s, we should have long tasted gold in the olympics.

The quest for the olympic gold is getting fainter and fainter. As we try to resolve our issues internally, the rest of the world is elevating their play in a much higher level. We’re falling behind fast that we shouldn’t be concentrating on how we can get that lone gold medal, we should get our acts straight and train our athletes to be world class compeitors. Let’s not settle on the idea of getting one gold medal per Olympics, but rather focus on future plans that could give us more.

My hopes are not high for this year’s Olympics, but I am still hoping. That’s all we can do now.