By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman Butch Ramirez plans to institute a “sports playbook” to sustain the country’s successful and historic showing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Ramirez said he would talk to concerned officials from the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), National Sports Associations (NSAs), the government and the private sector on formulating this idea of having standard operating procedures on training and participation of athletes particularly in elite tournaments such as the Olympics.
“It is important to have a playbook for the succeeding leaders to sustain our athletes’ success in Tokyo,” Ramirez said in Saturday’s guesting at Noli Eala’s Power and Play program.
Among his plans is to incorporate Hidilyn Diaz’s “Team HD” model to other athletes for benefits inside and outside of training.
Diaz, the country’s first Olympic gold medalist, has always been vocal about how thankful she was to have a team composed of strength and conditioning coach, an elite foreign coach, a nutritionist and a psychologist in achieving her goals.
“It can be a beautiful model,” Ramirez said.
Also part of his initial plans is to provide long-term training support for all 19 Tokyo Olympians up to the 2024 Paris and 2028 Brisbane Olympics.
“This plan, we have to confirm this with POC President Bambol Tolentino and the private sector. Kasi nakita nyo naman, bihira lang ang isang atleta na baguhan ang manalo gold sa Olympics,” said Ramirez, citing Diaz who took four Olympic stints to become a gold medalist.
A few years before the Olympics, the PSC has been pouring all its energy on around 80 athletes who have high chances of qualifying to the Games. It produced 19 qualifiers, as well as the best performance of taking home one gold from Diaz, two silver medals from boxers Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam, and one bronze from boxer Eumir Marcial.