Thoughts from a Sports Lover... Olympics and Essence of Sports

Hi my name is Gladys, also known as the Golden Ticket, and I'm an "olympicholic". Yes my friends, I have constantly followed the happenings of the biggest sporting event since Day 1. Oh yeah, just want to share that when they opened the ceremonies last August 8, I was late for my Ultimate Frisbee pick-up games because I watched the opening ceremonies. Talk about the greatest show on earth!! Breathtaking!!! Dazzling!!!!

They say the fireworks show was magnificent. Hey, the Chinese invented fireworks right? So it's all about show it all baby! This was at the National Stadium, with 91,000 spectators... Whoa talk about more than 10x the population of Austria!! (Image from Current).

Whoa! (Image from the White House News)

Even if it was in the news that the fireworks show was quite bogus due to computer graphic effects (they said they couldn't catch the live fireworks show on air, like from aerial view), it really caught my attention so much, my eyes were stuck on the TV set. In other words, nauto ako dun but hey, I was really impressed.

A few days before Olympics, Sky Cable launched the 24/7 of the game's coverage. I told my dad about it. As a fellow lover of sports, he got excited about it and said to get the 24/7 coverage. For Php1500 from August 8-24, that ain't bad huh.

So talk about Olympics couch potato marathon galore!! Although most of the exciting events were shown at C/S Sports (formerly RPN 9), ETC and ETC 2nd Avenue, we would still flip through the 24/7 and watch other events.

If you ask me, my favorite events are as follows:

• Swimming - Whoa talk about adrenaline rush! Everyday records were broken and swimmers got faster and faster. I just couldn't help but stand up from the couch, jump like I chugged a jar of sugar and exclaimed like a little girl when the swimmers approach the gutter or their finish line. As overacting as I may sound, when JB Walsh (Pinoy pambato) finished first on his heat, I cried and felt so proud of that lad. It's just too bad that he didn't get qualified for the next round because his time was too slow. But the highlight of the event that rocked the history of swimming was MICHAEL PHELPS!! Even if the guy's quite young (22 years old to be exact), he's really cute. But more than his cuteness, he's a torpedo!! He bagged 8 gold medals (and it just makes me feel sad that the Philippines couldn't get a single medal) and I bet that the boy will have tons of sponsors after the Olympics. He'll be their goldmine. So yeah, I say he's the 21st century Poseidon.

Michael Phelps and his victory on the 4X100 relay. Ay wait para siyang galit pero masaya lang siya jan... eto kaya...

...Ayan! They bagged the gold. I also find that guy (Michael Phelps' right side) cute! Pero mejo tago lang si Phelps....

....hhmmm a little bit airbrushed but hey not bad for a magazine cover!

• Beach Volleyball - Aside from getting envious because the women players got dashboard abs and golden tan complexion, it was a fun game to watch. I noticed that they really fought hard to get that piece of gold, the matches were tight. The dives, blocks and spikes were just tremendously good. Maybe it would have so much fun if I'll be in Beijing and watch Beach Volleyball. The spectators were enjoying the games, it was like they were having a party. They loudly cheered for their country while singing in chorus retro songs like "That's The Way Uh-huh Uh-huh I like it... Uh-huh Uh-huh". Saya!

China vs. Switzerland. I watched this game and China won.

• Equestrian - That is the sport with such class. It has been my dream to play the sport but oh my heavens it's such a chichi expensive sport. Just to have a premium horse, as in a stallion, costs Php 5,000,000.00 (coz you have to buy it somewhere outside of the Philippines and I don't think we're breeding those types of horsies) and you have to pay loads of bucks to have your horse maintained in a stable and use the polo field. MAHAL! So I guess it's much better to watch it. But I never thought that my mom and I enjoyed watching the event. We watched the jumping event. So here's how it goes. 88 seconds are given to each player. Within the given time, they must go through the obstacles, without committing any mistakes (like making the poles fall) and without the horse tantrums. If they do such, they will be given penalties. For the team event, USA won the even and they bagged the gold medal, followed by Canada and Sweden got the bronze medal.



Team USA won the Jumping Event

• Basketball - All I can say is hail to the Dream Team! That's it, 'nuff said. Well much was expected from China because their basketball hero Yao Ming played for the team but it looked like he was just doing all the work, considering he had an injury. Team Spain was also good (Oh yeah and it was a news that they had a picture that looked insulting to China. What did they do? They pulled their temples, as if they had chinky eyes or something. It kinda brought rage to the Chinese).



Asteeg!! Dream Team!!

• Fencing - You gotta have some happy feet and speed to make a difference in this sport. My favorite was the individual foil. Italy won the gold and bronze medal. Hhmmm I wanna take Fencing lessons....

Italy dominated the foil event

And of course the love of my life... TENNIS!! I even missed a party just to watch the intense finals match. My dad and I talked about this and we realized that the likes of Federer and Nadal, or the Williams sis wouldn't care enough to win the gold in the Olympics because there's no hefty price money involved and points to increase their seed will not be credited to ATP or WTA. But we were wrong. The Russian girls dominated the Ladies' Singles event, as they bagged all the medals, from Gold to Bronze. Nadal won the gold for Men's Singles event. Federer won for the Men's Doubles with some guy whose name's hard to pronounce (and he's a very good doubles player, oh yeah that's his cup-of-tea when he started his career) against Sweden. Williams sisters bagged the gold for Ladies' Doubles. Novak Djokovic won the bronze. I guess to them the Olympics is more than just getting a medal but it's bringing honor to their country and probably the thrill of being called an Olympian that mattered to these hotshots.

Rafa won the gold. Ack ang laki ng arms!! So muscular!!

Can I just share that I encountered the most peculiar name in the Olympics. Taekwondo. There's this African-French jin whose name's Gwladys Patience Epangue. The first name's pronounced as GLADYS but what's up with the W after the G? It's like saying the word BOY with this spelling: B-H-O-Y. OMG right??

Ohhhkkkaaayyy....

As for our pambato or our manok or basically our team, we sent 15 athletes in Beijing but they were on a losing streak. But in fairness, I saw how the players did their very best.

For instance, Hidalyn Diaz of weightlifting poured her heart and muscles out in the 58KG event. She was good at the snatch and clean & jerk portions during the first part of her game (or when the weight of her "barbels" were a bit light, like 80KG) but when the weight increased to 100+KG, she missed it. I felt bad when she cried that she didn't make it but I'm sure the girl will go places in the next games. After all, she's just 17 and she still has SEA Games, Asian Games and after 4 years the London Olympics.

To our local swimmers, just a few more and we will be at par with the fastest fins in the world.

I felt bad with Harry Tanamor and our Taekwondo jins. If you watched the games, you'd see that they were at their best from every punch and kick that they did but it looked like there was bad judging and they missed scoring our manoks. I don't know if they're quite blind or they had their biases, all I could do was sigh and shook my head with sadness.

If only our players will have more exposure and funding in their future games, someday they'll bag lots of Olympic gold medals.

Well I affirm our Philippine Olympians and I am proud to be Pinoy!

Watching the Olympics brought me back to memory lane. Those were the days when we played at Milo Little Olympics and WNCAA or when I played at the Milo Summer Tennis Camp and bagged a few medals. I remember during the opening ceremonies of these leagues and each school paraded around Rizal Stadium or Quirino Grand Stand... Whoa I was so thrilled. Well, even in the littlest leagues, I felt proud. It's such a different feeling after winning a game and a medal is placed onto your neck. It was like having an imaginary crowd of millions cheering for you.

I so thank my parents for supporting me in my love for Tennis and I owe it so much to them.

My medals

Milo Summer Tennis Camp circa 1996. I'm the girl with the green shirt.

My varsity team SY 1998-1999

Doubles match with Daddy at a clan reunion circa 1998... It was a dream come true to play with my dad. We're on the other side of the court. Daddy was in a green shirt I was wearing a dress.

Sports has been a vital part of my growing-up years and it'll be in my DNA for the rest of my life. I promise to myself that in the future, if I have my own kidlets, I'll show them the wonder of sports. Even if they get sunburned, I'll truly support them by applying SPF 70 and cheering them until I lose my voice.

I am thankful that I got a bunch of crazy yet fun-loving friends, called the Ultimate Warriors, who truly love sports. Even in the midst of corporate toxicity, we exert effort to love sports and have fun. Hey we have even gone beyond Ultimate Frisbee, but we've been doing other sporty activities such as climbing, badminton and coming soon, table tennis!!

Cheers to the wonders of sports!!

Rest of the photos from the Beijing Olympics website