6 new members for medal count

Congratulations are in order for the newly inducted regular members of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).

The clear membership entry benchmark to the POC is that these six sports are medal events in established international games such as the Southeast Asian Games and the Asian Games and does not take into account the popularity of the sport or traction in volume of it being played in the Philippines.

The POC recently opened its doors to six new regular members: floorball, sport climbing, lacrosse, mixed martial arts (MMA), teqball, and kabaddi. Welcome mats are easy to lay down but the harder question is what these sports can do once they step inside. So, let us read the scoreboard, not the press release.

Floorball arrives with the strongest ranking. The men’s team sits 12th in the international ranking, after finishing 11th and 15th at the last two World Championships. In 2024, it beat Poland, 9-8, in overtime, the first time an Asia-Oceania team defeated a European side at that tournament. That is not a feel-good story — this is a competitive record.

Lacrosse comes second, but it comes with an asterisk.

The men are ranked No. 30 in the world after winning silver at the Asia-Pacific championship, which qualified them for the 2027 World Championship. The women beat world No. 7 Czechia, 11-5, for the country’s first win at their World Championship. The asterisk is that the roster is largely made up of heritage athletes based overseas. That is legitimate, but a federation that depends on a diaspora must still build a domestic grassroots development pipeline.

MMA delivered a headline in the recent 20th Asian Games. Jean Claude Saclag took silver in the men’s traditional -65kg final at the Asian Games, losing 0-3 to Tajikistan’s Otabek Rajabov while compatriot Carlos Alvarez won the bronze at 77 kg. It was an excellent debut result for the sport and came largely from our two national fighters.

Sport climbing sits in the middle. In the previous SEA Games last year, the Philippines settled for a bronze medal, a downgrade from the gold medal it won 15 years ago in the Palembang SEA Games.

In the Asian Beach Games, however, the Philippine speed relay teams finished 17th and 18th. That is promising for the sport regionally but remains distant continentally.

Teqball is the tantalizing event. POC president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino has called it a sport that Filipino athletes could potentially dominate. Yet in the Asian Games, reports listed teqball among the missed targets. Potential is a forecast but medals are still the best proof of validation.

Kabaddi is the unknown on the list. I could not find a verified international record for the Philippines, and a record that cannot be verified cannot be funded with confidence except that kabaddi is an event in the Asian Games.

Which brings me to the crux of the matter: Regular membership is not a trophy. It is a license to ask for support, and with it comes accountability. The Philippine Sports Commission and private sponsors will rightly ask what the investment buys. The answer must be measurable: a published calendar, audited books, transparent athlete selection, and results that can be proven and verified.

My own ranking is basic, cut and simple. Floorball is currently the most capable, however, lacrosse is competitive with a caveat. MMA holds promise and Sports Climbing is rising. Teqball is promised while kabaddi must prove itself.

None of that order is permanent. A development judgment, as I have said before, is an invitation and not a conclusion. The six newcomers have the POC’s recognition — hopefully, the grassroots development of the sport follows.