An affair to remember

On Monday, the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) will honor the Filipino athletes who made significant contributions to the country’s greatest ever performance in the Olympic Games.

The list of guests is star-studded.

Gymnast Carlos Yulo is on top of the honor roll for winning a pair of gold medals while lady boxers Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecio are not far behind after securing bronze medals to underscore the Filipinos’ success in their 100th year of participating in the Summer Games.

Olympic heroes of the past will also be there. In fact, no less than former Senator Freddie Webb — a member of the basketball team that competed in the Munich Olympics in 1972 — will deliver an inspirational message in what is billed as the biggest ever staging of the PSA Annual Awards Night.

But the glittery event, which will be held at the Centennial Hall of the Manila Hotel, will not just be about celebrating the triumphs. It will also be about recalling the heartbreaks that fueled the athletes into emerging as among the greatest in the world.

Yulo, for example, will not be where he is right now if not for the disappointments he suffered in the past.

Prior to performing under the bright lights of Paris, Yulo parted ways with his Japanese coach due to professional differences. As if that was not enough, he had a misunderstanding with his family — a feud that reached its boiling point when the Olympic hero called his mother a thief while defending his girlfriend in Australia-based content creator Chloe San Jose.

In short, Yulo trained for the Olympics with a bleeding heart. And since he had no coach, he tasked Aldrin Castañeda — the mentor who trained him during his early days with the national team — to guide him through the Summer Games.

Fortunately for him, everything paid off and he was able to fly home with two shiny gold medals and the tag of greatest Filipino Olympian ever.

Villegas and Petecio also have their stories to tell.

Villegas, who comes from a poor district of Tacloban City, has been an underdog all her life. With the focus always trained on high-profile boxers like Petecio, Carlo Paalam and Eumir Marcial, Villegas quietly worked hard until she made a surprise Olympic qualification.

But the road to glory was littered with frustrations.

At one point, she was about to give up after suffering shoulder, knee and foot injuries in the buildup to the Summer Games. But her coach, Reynaldo Galido, fired her up, reminding her that winning an Olympic medal would not just change her life but that of her family’s, and earn her the love and admiration of this sports-crazy nation.

On the same note, emerging victorious wasn’t easy for Petecio.

After clinching a silver medal in the Tokyo Games in 2021, hopes were high for Petecio who was billed as the next Filipino to win an Olympic medal.

She, however, refused to crumble to pressure. She worked hard until she eventually advanced to the medal round of the Paris Olympics. Yes, she fell short of winning the gold — and living above everybody’s expectation — but she still earned the respect of Filipinos for fighting her heart out against the best boxers in the world.

The elusive Olympic gold may never come for the 32-year-old Petecio due to the possibility of boxing being completely dropped from the list of sports that will be played in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, but it was still mission accomplished for her as she emerged as the first Filipina to win multiple Olympic medals.

Truly, the PSA Annual Awards Night will be an affair to remember. On this very special night, the athletes, coaches, team managers, sports officials and special guests will gather to celebrate the triumphs, heartbreaks and all the milestones of the year just past.

Hopefully, this will fuel the current crop of Filipino athletes to work even harder and inspire the rising stars to keep chasing their dreams.