THREE Filipino athletes are currently on the spotlight for bringing honor to the Philippines when they won their respective international competitions – Carlos Yulo became the first Filipino to win gold in the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships and secured a spot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Nesthy Petecio won the featherweight belt in the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships, and Ernest John Obiena, a pole vaulter who won in the 2019 Summer Universiade and also secured an Olympics spot.
All these sports glories are now seen by many together with the unsuccessful campaign of the Gilas Pilipinas, our national team, in the FIBA World Cup.
Some quarters are now pushing for a shift on the “focus” of sports development program in our country specifically by “abandoning” basketball and channeling resources for it to other fields that have better potentials of giving gold medals for the Philippines in international competitions.
Is there really a national policy to “focus” on the development of basketball and thus sacrifice the development of other sports fields?
In the context of the need to allocate our country’s limited resources for sports development, there is really a need to set priorities. However, should priorities be set in terms of “gold potential” in international competitions? If they should, the call to “abandon” or at least give lesser priority to basketball makes sense.
However, sports development is not and should not be primarily about winning gold medals in international competitions. It is about developing the physical well-being of our citizens, instilling discipline particularly among the youth, and pulling them out of social ills like drug addiction.
There is nothing wrong about developing athletes who have potentials of winning in international competitions and thus giving honor to the Philippines. But there is something wrong when we stop supporting sports fields, like basketball, that have been more effective in achieving for our country victories on the basic and essential purposes of sports development.
Playing basketball has been part of our culture as far back as we can all remember. It is the only sports being played by most Filipino youth in all parts of the country.
If basketball is our country’s best vehicle in promoting and developing the physical well-being of our citizens, in instilling discipline particularly among the youth, and in discouraging them to use illegal drugs, does it make sense for our government to allocate lesser resources for it in favor of allocating more resources for sports fields that can potentially give our country gold medals in international competitions, including in the Olympic Games?
What “gold” should we really go for?
