Is There Any Hope Left in Sports for Manny Pacquiao's Country?

Even with sporting legends such as Manny Pacquiao of boxing, Efren "The Magician" Reyes of billiards, Paeng Nepomuceno of bowling, and Eugene Torre of chess, my country, the Philippines, has yet to win a gold medal in the Olympics.

Most people are blaming it on being a third-world country. They say our government doesn't allocate enough funds for our national athletes. In a nation where more than 80% of its people are living on less than a dollar a day, how can anyone expect to throw away a sum of money for athletes who just "play" when millions are starving?

But anyone with a sane mind doesn't buy that. The fastest man in the planet comes from a third world country.

A number of experts insist that we don't have a huge pool of talents to choose our athletes from unlike China which has at least a billion people at its disposal.

Anyone who is not mentally troubled doesn't buy that. A country with a population of barely a million has already won a gold medal.

Some say Filipinos' physical make-up is a big disadvantage. The Americans and the Europeans are giants when compared to us.

We don't buy that either, as our neighbors like Thailand and Indonesia, which nearly resemble us physically, have been having their national anthems played regularly in the Olympics. And if that argument is true, we wouldn't have had a No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the planet today.

So, what ails Philippines sports?

The chief cause of our miseries are the politicians who are in charge of Philippine sports. With their own selfish interests in mind, they make use of our athletes for their personal gains.

They even often quarrel among themselves, greatly affecting the morale of the athletes under their care.

They are the ones who take all the glory when their athletes perform well but are the same ones who blame everybody else but themselves when the athletes fail to bring home medals.

Is there still hope for us?

Ordinary people like me who has a deep passion for sports are holding on to the slimmest of hope still left.

Someday, our national anthem will be played in the Olympics too.