SUMMARY
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After winning the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games overall championship, the Philippines continued to shine its glory in the delayed Tokyo Olympics where weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz captured the country’s first Olympic gold medal.
With the delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, major sporting events will be squeezed into 2022 that will hopefully allow more historic finishes to unfold for the Philippines.
Beijing Winter Olympics
The Philippines will be represented by Filipino-American alpine skier Asa Miller in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics that will be staged from February 4 to 20 in China as the country’s lone qualifier.
Born and raised in the US with Filipino roots, Miller will be participating in the slalom and giant slalom events in his second Winter Olympics stint.
In the 2018 edition, he placed 70th out of 110 in the giant slalom event. He is slated to carry the flag for the second straight time in the opening ceremonies as well.
The Beijing Olympics have been marred by protests due to China’s human rights issues and withdrawals from significant organizations like the National Hockey League due to the surge of COVID-19 cases.
Vietnam SEA Games
The Philippines is set to defend its overall title in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games after it bagged a record haul of 149 gold medals to bounce back from its dismal 24 golds in the 2017 edition.
The delayed regional biennial meet is set to take place in Hanoi from May 12 to 23 in a bubble setup.
The country’s biggest names will finally see action once again like weightlifting queen Diaz and world gymnastics champion Carlos Yulo, the Philippines’ most bemedalled athlete in the 2019 edition.
Vietnam will hold 520 events among 40 sports, as the Philippines will field 626 athletes to participate in 39 sports.
The Philippine Para team aims to finally join the regional biennial meet once again after the country’s hosting of the ASEAN Para Games was canceled due to COVID-19 in 2020.
The World Games
The Philippines has consistently been successful in its previous campaigns in The World Games, with the latest conquest being billiards player Carlo Biado’s gold medal in the 2017 edition.
Biado won the country’s first World Games gold when he defeated British Jayson Shaw, 11–7, to win the men’s 9-ball event. He was also the lone medal winner of the campaign.
He is slated to compete in the event once again on July 7 to July 17 in Birmingham, Alabama.
The country will pin its hopes on Biado again after he became the first Filipino to win the US Open Pool Championships since Efren Bata Reyes. In the 2021 edition of the prestigious pool meet, Biado staged a momentous comeback over Singaporean Aloysius Yapp, 13-8, last September.
The Philippines has only won a total of 11 medals from the World Games, an international multi-sport event that is staged for non-Olympic sport events, since its inception in 1981.
Hangzhou Asian Games
The Philippines hopes to prove its worth at the Asian level and exceed its four-gold haul from the 2018 edition.
The 2022 Asiad will be held in Hangzhou, China from September 10 to 25 that will feature 37 sports, including breakdancing and esports.
Filipina athletes led the golden haul from the 2018 edition staged in Jakarta, Indonesia as golfer Yuka Saso recorded a double-gold performance in the individual and team events, while Diaz won her first Asian Games gold. Margielyn Didal secured the inaugural Asian Games women’s street skate gold.
The Hangzhou Asian Games hopes to showcase the grandest revenge campaigns from the 2018 edition. Olympic boxing silver medalist Nesthy Petecio, who was controversially booted out, aims for Asiad glory, pole vaulter EJ Obiena aims to claim his status as the Asian record holder, and world champion gymnast Yulo targets the top honors.
The Philippine Para team also hopes to surpass its historic 10-gold haul in the 2018 Asian Para Games after entering the meet with zero gold medals.
Shantou Asian Youth Games
China will host the Asian Youth Games (AYG) for the second straight time in Shantou from December 20 to 28.
The 2017 edition was set to be hosted in Sri Lanka, but had to be stripped of its hosting rights due to the political interference of its government’s sports ministry with the national Olympic Committee. The hosting rights were awarded to Indonesia instead, but with the staging of the 2018 Asian Games, the Olympic Council of Asia decided to postpone the event to 2021, before it got moved again to 2022.
The country’s up-and-coming youth athletes aged 14 to 17 years old look to stand out after the COVID-19 pandemic robbed them of local sports events in the last two years.
They hope to succeed the likes of AYG gold medalist and taekwondo star Pauline Lopez, as well as golfers Mia Legaspi and Princess Superal who bagged 1-2 finishes in the international meet. – Rappler.com
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