AFTER Manny Pacquiao’s hopes to fight at next year’s Rio Games have been shattered, the world boxing icon now has one new formula to inspire fellow Filipino athletes to achieve the most cherished dream of Philippine sports which is to win its very first Olympic gold medal.
The eight-weight division champion, who according to Forbes is now the second highest-paid celebrity in the world, has pledged to give a 5-million pesos (roughly $110,777) reward to a Filipino athlete who can produce the country’s first gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Recently, the International Boxing Association (AIBA), the international sanctioning body for amateur boxing, raised the age limit for amateur boxers from 34 to 40, which would have allowed the 36-year-old Filipino superstar to join the 2016 Olympics.
However, the AIBA has also set a maximum limit of 20 professional fights for boxers who want to compete in the Olympics. Pacquiao has had too many professional bouts already, 64 fights as a professional to be exact, winning 57 of them with 38 coming by way of knockouts. Thus, he does not qualify to be amongst the first professionals to compete at the Olympics.
Anyway, the Saranggani representative is hoping his pledge will further inspire athletes to work harder in the hope of ending the long search for the coveted medal in the world’s biggest sports spectacle.
Under the government’s Incentive Act, an athlete that wins an Olympic gold will receive 5 million pesos. The silver medalist gets 2.5 million pesos while 1 million pesos is given to a bronze medal winner.
And as always, Philippine amateur boxing will surely be the key to ending the country’s long-running search for the Olympic gold.
For the record, the Philippines has been competing in the prestigious Olympic Games since 1924. Its highest treasure are two silver medals from boxing, courtesy of Anthony Villanueva in the 1960 Tokyo Olympics and Mansueto Velasco in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Based on solid empirical data, the country has so far claimed nine medals in the Olympics, five of them are from boxing.
Jose Villanueva won bronze in the1932 Los Angeles Games, Anthony Villanueva won silver in 1964 in Tokyo, Leopoldo Serrantes won bronze in 1988 in Seoul, Roel Velasco won bronze in 1992 in Barcelona and Mansueto Velasco won silver in 1996 in Atlanta.
Obviously, our boxers are so close to achieving the ultimate goal of ending the country’s search for that elusive gold medal.
Unfortunately, after Velasco’s silver medal-finish, it was all downhill. Filipino boxers have failed to make a podium finish and have gone home with fat eggs from the quadrennial Games.
In fact, in the last London edition, and for the fourth Olympics in a row, Filipino athletes were unable to take home a medal of any colour for the country.
But still, the record should be enough proof that if and when the country finally gets around to win the gold medal, it would come from the Filipino fist. In other words, boxing has the most realistic shot at the Olympic gold.
And so if the country really intends to turn that into reality in the coming 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, the sport should receive all the help it can get, not only from the government, but also from generous supporters, like Pacquiao who was in the Philippine national amateur team for two years in the 1990s before he turned professional at the age of 16.
His pledge of reward to whoever wins a gold should lift the spirits of the Filipino athletes.
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