OUR beloved Philippines is sending a dozen athletes to the 31st Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from August 5-21. A record number of countries are taking part in a record number of sports as more than 10,500 athletes from 207 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) are expected to show up for the prestigious quadrennial Games that will feature 28 Olympic sports and have 306 sets of medals (gold/silver/bronze) up for grabs.
Rio de Janeiro beat Real Madrid of Spain in a bidding process in October 2009 to become the first South American city to host the Summer Olympics. Likewise, these are the first Games to be held in a Portuguese-speaking country. The opening ceremony on August 5 will be staged at the Maracana Stadium.
The 12 Filipino athletes to Rio 2016 are Ian Lariba (table tennis, also the country’s flag bearer during the opening ceremony), Jessie King Lacuna (swimming), Nestor Colonia (weightlifting), Hidilyn Diaz (weightlifting), Marestella Torres (long jump), Kirstie Elaine Alora (taekwondo), Rogen Ladon (boxing), Charly Suarez (boxing), Jasmine Alkhaldi (swimmer), Miguel Tabuena (golf), Eric Shauwn Cray (athletics), Mary Joy Tabal (athletics).
Diaz and Torres are campaigning in their third straight Olympics while overseas-based swimmers Lacuna and Alkhaldi are seeing action in their second consecutive Games. The chances of a Filipino athlete winning a medal in the Rio Olympics are very slim. The country has not secured a place in the medal standings since the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Since joining the Summer Olympiad for the first time in 1924 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the Philippines has only captured a total of nine medals. All of them were either silver or bronze. With Mongolia having snared its first gold during the 2008 Beijing Games, the Philippines now owns the record for the most number of Olympic medals without a gold.
The Philippines’ medal tally in Olympic history consists of two silvers and seven bronzes. Of the nine medals, five have come from the sport of boxing. The five Olympic boxing medalists are: Jose Villanueva (bronze, bantamweight division, 1932 Los Angeles, USA), Anthony Villanueva (silver, featherweight, 1964 Tokyo, Japan – the son of Jose Villanueva), Leopoldo Serrantes (bronze, light flyweight, 1988 Seoul, South Korea), Roel Velasco (bronze, light flyweight, 1992 Barcelona, Spain) and Mansueto (Onyok) Velasco (silver, light flyweight, 1996 Atlanta, USA – the younger brother of Roel).
Other Filipinos who earned a podium finish in the Summer Olympics are multiple medalist Teofilo Yldefonso (bronze, men’s 200-meter breaststroke, swimming, 1928 Amsterdam, Netherlands; and bronze, men’s 200-meter breaststroke, 1932 Los Angeles, USA); Simeon Toribio (bronze, men’s high jump, athletics, 1932 Los Angeles, USA); and Miguel White (bronze, men’s 400-meter hurdles, athletics, 1936 Berlin, Germany).
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