Tacloban ready to welcome favorite daughter

A hero’s welcome in her hometown — Tacloban City — is in store for Aira Villegas following her heroic performance in the Paris Olympics last month.

Villegas bared that the local government unit of Tacloban City headed by Mayor Alfred Romualdez is already planning a parade to honor her bronze-medal finish in the women’s boxing 50-kilogram division of the Summer Games.

It won’t be the first time for Villegas to feel the love and gratitude of her countrymen.

When they arrived from the French capital last Tuesday, they were showered with accolades with gymnast Carlos Yulo emerging as the biggest star after clinching a pair of gold medal while boxer Nesthy Petecio took home a bronze.

“I’ll be there this Thursday. Before I even got a medal, they were already contacting me about it,” the 29-year-old Villegas said at the sidelines of the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum last Tuesday at the conference hall of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

“Getting a medal in the Olympics is my way of saying ‘thank you’ for the support that our LGU had given me.”

But winning an Olympic medal wasn’t easy.

Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines (ABAP) secretary general Marcus Jarwin Manalo revealed that Villegas had to overcome various injuries just to shine together with the best female boxers in the world.

“She had a lot of injuries: Shoulder tendinopathy, mild ACL sprain, and compartment syndrome in her left foot,” Manalo said, enumerating the health situation of Villegas, a condition that kept her from boxing in the ring for about a month before the Paris Games.

“When she first had her sparring session, we were in France. And then during her actual sparring, we were already in Germany, just two weeks before the Olympics.”

But the daily rehab and the help provided by the ABAP support staff allowed Villegas to perform above expectations in her first ever Olympic stint.

“It was a big competition so my focus was to get a medal,” said Villegas, who was joined by her coach and Olympian Reynaldo Galido in the weekly session presented by San Miguel Corporation, Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, MILO, Smart/PLDT, and the leading sports entertainment gateway in the Philippines ArenaPlus.

Villegas won her first two bouts against Yasmine Moutaqui of Morocco and Roumaysa Boualam of Algeria, the same boxer she sparred in Germany while still recovering from her injuries, to set up a quarterfinal clash with home bet Wassila Lkhadiri.

On the eve of the fight for a semifinals berth and a sure bronze, Galido personally talked to Villegas about how winning the bout would change her life forever.

“I told her that this fight isn’t easy. Our opponent is a hometown bet,” Galido said.

“But I told her that she should stay focused because this fight will change your life. Just think of your parents and siblings.”

Villegas beat the French boxer in a tightly-fought contest, 3-2, to give boxing its first medal in Paris. Unfortunately, she lost to a more experienced Buse Naz Cakuroglu of Turkey in the semifinals to end her drive of winning the gold.

Getting her feet finally wet in the highest sports competition in the world, the Filipina said there’s no stopping her from achieving her ultimate goal.

“I am aware that I’m now an Olympic bronze medalist but I can’t still feel it because in my mind, I feel that I should have gotten the gold medal so I have to work hard until I reach my goal,” she said despite boxing still in danger of missing out the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.