Highly placed sources reveal that U23 Azkals will participate in the SEA Games in Myanmar after all. The standard set initially by POC and PSC has been thrown out the window, allowing sure non-medalists like U23 Azkals to finally represent the country.
With this, several questions arise. Who or what forced POC and PSC to totally abandon their "only gold medalist" policy ? What will prevent other national teams, which do not have a ghost of a chance to win a medal, from asking POC and PSC to allow them to go to Myanmar too ? With a bigger delegation, will PSC be able to shoulder the expenses of the additional delegates ? Will only those who can shoulder their own expenses be the ones to go ? How will the athletes, who worked hard to win gold medals, take the unmerited accommodation of dead-last finishers like the U23 Azkals ? Where is the pursuit of excellence in sports if non-winners are given the same privilege as gold medalists ?
The problem with Philippine sports is the lack of premium on excellence. We as a nation do not value excellence in sports. We do not demand excellence from our national teams. We are not ashamed of the fact that our national teams finish dead last in most of the tournaments they participate in. Thus, we end up as a big joke in major tournaments abroad. I truly long for the day when we expect our national teams to win gold medals because our standards and expectations dictate so.
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