Why make it harder?
The Olympic Games, the pinnacle of human achievement in sports. Often also an occasion for frustration, if not downright embarrassment for Filipino sports fans. We dream of being more than just a small player at this level of competition, but honestly, we haven’t bitten the bullet and made the hard decisions with regards to our sports programs. By default, we support the sports that are popular, entrenched, or doing okay. But as we’ll know, play isn’t good enough. When are we going to get tired of saying we’re trying and start finding real ways to win?
Beyond mere talent identification, many countries have programs for identifying the strengths of individual athletes at a very young age. These bare the lessons we have to learn, hopefully once we’ve decided which sports we really should encourage our people to start getting into and practicing. First, let’s take a step back. Do we even have a template for what our considerations are in prioritizing sports?
For example, if we were to prioritize sports based on pure economic efficiency, we would not engage in sports which use expensive equipment. That would make sports like martial arts, boxing, swimming, football (often played barefoot), basketball and other sports a priority over those like equestrian, golf, and so on, for example. A further consideration would be the number of participants, which would multiply the food, uniforms and travel cost. That would eliminate virtually all team sports. On the other hand, we would further choose to support sports that could give an athlete more than one chance at a gold medal. That means swimming and track. If we made expense the main consideration, this is how we would program grassroots sports development and elite athlete training.
If we were to consider sports that are already popular, we would go with basketball, football, boxing, swimming, billiards (not yet an Olympic sports), for our development program. This would make it relatively easy to acquire sponsorships and attract more youth to try the sports, therefore increasing the base from which to select national athletes. We have been in an eternal chicken and egg situation. Should the government spend taxpayers’ money to develop sports which may eventually reap limited rewards for the sake of fairness? Should we go with our s t re ng t h s , until it is proven that certain other sports deserve our support? Also, how do we determine how much support each sport should receive from the government? At the far end of the scale, would we be fair to remove government subsidy from sports that already have big private sponsors? These are tough questions that will focus our attention and resources and make expectations more realistic.
“You can be anything you want to be” is a universally inspiring quote but it falls woefully short in answering questions like recognizing strengths and weaknesses. The more successful sporting nations, like China and the US, have scientific processes that can virtually predict what kind of an athlete a child can become based on heredity, physical make- up, and other factors. Yao Ming was a prime example of how Chinese government doctors predicted he would be at least 7’3”, so he was adopted and absorbed by the sports system of Shanghai City.
It is very hard for Filipinos to say no. It brings with it certain guilt with turning someone down, even when the hard truth will set them on a straighter path. We instead consider other things that have nothing to do with sport performance. We look at “heart” instead of natural ability. We say the athlete is a “good person” even if that makes no difference on the playing field. We pad the scales in their favor with everything else, except what will make a palpable difference on the playing field itself.
Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against dreaming big. But if you aren’t built for the game you love, you will only get so far. Have a back-up plan. As recently as 15 years ago, college basketball centers were 6’4”. Today, they’re 6’6”. It’s simply easier to win with a big center, and would take so much more with a small one. You’re welcome to try, but why make it harder if you’re already starting out with the odds stacked against you?