Curious?

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Were you curious just as I was? Curious about what, you may ask? Well, this has something to do with the just-concluded SEA Games wherein the Philippines was declared overall champion.

So what is so curious about that, you may ask again? Let me explain: Unofficial results show that the Philippines bagged 149 gold medals, 100 silver medals, and 120 bronze medals. Malaysia, the 2017 overall champion, garnered only 55 gold medals this time, compared to 145 golds they took as champions.

Strange, wouldn’t you agree? Did the Philippines improve that much or did Malaysia just collapse that bad?

We need to look deeper into what is going on here in Southeast Asia when it comes to sports. As I was researching, I came across an interesting article (by Camille Naredo, ABS-CBN, Aug. 30, 2017) basically giving us an insight to how the Games work. First and foremost is the selection of sports by the host nation. Sporting events that the Philippines is good at were actually excluded by Malaysia in the 2017 Games. Some legitimate Filipino athletes were also deprived of their right to compete in Malaysia.

Another complaint back in 2017 was the quality of officiating in certain sports like boxing, where the Philippines questioned the outcome of some matches.

That is why I like sports where there can be no doubt on the outcome: The fastest runner wins. The longest jump prevails. The strongest athlete lifts the most weight.

In this year’s SEA Games, the host Philippines had suggested to exclude Badminton from the list of sports for competition, but rightfully so, other countries complained, and the host had to give in to their requests. As it turns out, the Philippines never won any medal of any kind in in Badminton.

In the 2017 Games in Malaysia, only 38 sports were contested, compared to the SEA Games in the Philippines where we had 56 sports. This was by far the largest in terms of number of sports and events contested. Even the Olympics only has 33 sports that an athlete can compete in.

In the case of the sport of Arnis, the Philippines dominated in it with 14 gold medals; Vietnam got four golds. Arnis was not contested in the 2017 SEA Games.

An interesting fact to note is the consistency of Vietnam in the SEA Games. In 2015, they placed 3rd with 73 gold medals. In 2017, they again placed 3rd with 58 gold medals. This week, Vietnam moved up to 2nd place with 98 gold medals.

So in case you were wondering, yes, the 2021 SEA Games will be hosted by Vietnam. It should prove to be an interesting game indeed.

As for the Philippines during the recent SEA Games, we were most successful in Athletics, earning a total of 27 medals. We earned 21 medals in Taekwondo; and 20 medals in Arnis.

Soon comes the greater test with the Olympics being staged next year in Japan. How well the Philippines will perform will depend on just a few sports that may actually bring the Philippines its first Olympic gold medal yet.

In my humble opinion as an athlete and coach all these years, it would do the athletes good if the SEA Games only allow particular sports that are officially included in the Olympics. That way, we level the playing field when the athletes are able to train way ahead on particular standard sports that will be contested.

Curious no more?

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Author’s email: [email protected]

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