The quote caused quite a stir, especially from those who believe that coming home empty-handed is something to be ashamed about. But I suppose, giving him the benefit of the doubt, what Mr. Cojuangco was implying was that knowing how far from the world record many of our Philippine record times are, and knowing how far insufficient are the levels of our athletic training as compared with the best of the world, coming home without medals was something that was to be expected, and that was indeed what happened.

By the way, my reference to the "small Philippine athletic contingent" was to the number of athletes. I am unaware how many sports officials were in Beijing on taxpayer account; could Mr. Cojuangco or maybe even Rep. Monico Puentevella perhaps enlighten us?

Speaking of Puentevella, I agree wholeheartedly with him that we need to plan for London and for the 2016 Games – the host city is still to be named – this early. And I agree too that the plan should include bringing the best of our competitive athletes to training camps abroad, where they can get exposed to the best of the best early. Yes, this will cost us an arm and a leg – but I suspect that for as long as there is a clear, logical and reasonable plan, many donors will be more than willing to pool their funds together to win a medal in 2012 and more in 2016.

And that should be a plan that will also show how much we will be spending just to send sports officials to sporting competitions!

Indeed, whatever "plan" Mr. Cojuangco was referring to must be junked, now.

My friends in the world of basketball will not love me for this, but I think we should decelerate our focus on basketball and hasten preparations in other, more competitive sports. Wushu has clearly proved we can compete for the gold. Lobbying for the inclusion of bowling and billiards should also be part of the new plan. Who would be responsible for this? Then let’s focus on the sports in which nature does not give us a disadvantage of height or heft or even speed: taekwondo, shooting, gymnastics, synchronized swimming rather than swimming, even diving. And of course boxing.

The usual events we should continue to focus on, but in the short term we should focus on breaking Asian Games records as in athletics and swimming, even volleyball, or winning the hoops gold. These sports, though, will require far more work to bring us to Olympics levels of competitiveness. But those listed in the paragraph above are sports in which four years may be enough to land a bronze at the very least. So we must begin the hunt, immediately, for the next Bea Lucero, Art Macapagal and Onyok Velasco.

Having been fortunate enough to have witnessed a number of Olympic sports upfront in Beijing recently, I must confess that I looked on with a tinge of envy as nationals of various countries stood proud during the playing of their anthems. The Swiss, for example, in honor of the tennis doubles gold won by Federer and partner; the Chinese, in the many competitions they won. Even for just winning a heat, sports fans from different nations expressed such joy that I could only imagine, sitting there in envy. The only time I became proud was when I espied the Philippine flag hanging from the rafters of the Bird’s Nest; actually the second time was when I espied a Philippine Olympic Committee lapel pin on the lapel of a seller of Olympic souvenirs at the sports stadium of Peking University where the competition for table tennis was being held. And those times left me aching with the desire to hear a roar arise from the throats of Filipino sports fans when that time comes that a Filipino stands proud on the Olympic medal platform.

Hopefully, if we do it right, that time could come in London in 2012.

But we need a plan, and not that sort in which coming home empty-handed is described as "according to plan."

Maybe it’s time to gather the best intentioned minds together and make this a full-time campaign? Saka na ang Cha-Cha, Go for Gold muna!

***

Greetings to the crew of PR 209-210 which took me from Manila to Sydney via Melbourne Friday evening. It was an uneventful flight – as flights should be! – but I once again experienced the warmth of Filipino hospitality that one can expect to receive on any PAL flight anywhere, domestic or international.

Indeed in the cut-throat world of airline competition, we need to maximize that competitive advantage of a caring and warm personality, something I hear often from fellow travelers who laud Asian carriers and critique American ones. Of course, the Filipino traveler can be a headache – how often have I been in a flight whose chief purser had to constantly remind passengers to remain seated with their seatbelts fastened because of a rush for the overhead baggage bins as soon as the flight touches down in Manila? And in those occasions sometimes what will work is not a gentle reminder but a stern warning – and on one occasion it even required our pilot to halt the aircraft as it was taxiing on the runway with the message loud and clear that the flight would not progress if the errant passenger/s didn’t sit down!

Greetings to Captain Charles Deen and his seconds, FO Luis Ramos and SO Ronald Gucyam. Passengers were attended to by the crew led by Flight Purser James Uy aided by Eric Cordoniz, Uge Sison, Joy Genuino, Mark Tiu, Myla Magsombol, Lizza Ricaforte, Kay Sabile, Zelda Tan and Ems Tuason.