My name is Boresrev. I am a photographer and an engineer was my introductory line to Florante Pangilinan, father of Jacklyn Pangilinan, two-times Filipino record holder, a four-time Ivy League champion (2005, 2006, and 2008) in the 100 and 200 m breaststroke, and a multiple-time medalist at the Southeast Asian Games (2005 and 2007). Me and Ante met virtually while in a discussion group in an international forum for swimming way back in early 2004.
“My father is a Russian welder and my mom a Filipina worked in Kiev as a cook in a restaurant, that’s why my name “I added. We were hiding under aliases due to politics in Philippine swimming at that time and to protect our kids from the conflicts.
Me and Ante became virtual friends until he invited me sometime in 2005 to work in the US to his brother’s construction firm in Dallas Texas and that’s how I started my working career abroad. All because of that name.
As a young kid, I am an avid reader of newspapers and was already cognizant of the names of sports personalities that dominate the sports pages of dailies and tabloids at that time. I idolized Drazen Dalipagic, top guard of the Yugoslavian basketball team but find it hard to share with my friends because of his name. How about Vladimir Tkachenko? They would all raise their eyebrows and ask, who?
As young as we are, we avoided tongue twisting names and rather discuss about Atoy Co or Bogs Adornado. At that age even the name Jaworski is very odd or hard for a young kid like us to pronounce.
Our generation grew up with sports heroes of tongue twisting names. I cheer for a Swedish tennis star named Bjorn Borg but I prefer to describe him as the top rival of Jimmy Connors. It’s time consuming in just belting out their names in a discussion. Stefan Edberg, Ivan Lendl or Goran Ivanisevic, known for his power serves to name a few.
See?
As the years went by, more sportswriters became creative in coining names or aliases to speed up in describing an athlete; to make the it easier for the readers. If Edson Arantes do Nascimento continued to use his full name while wearing jersey No 10 for Brazil, his name could not have turned into a household name. We simply knew him as Pele, the name who popularized the game and became a part of history.
When I got hooked with golf in mid 90s, I encountered too some tongue twisting golfer names and one those names were Jesper Parnevik, known for his reversed golf hat brim and Louis Oosthuizen. Funny but sports commentators when covering golf in TV would rather describe him as Louis or top South African golfer to avoid embarrassment in mispronouncing his name.
When the San Antonio Spurs got the No 1 slot in the draft pick, I got the widest grin among my peers knowing fully that the Spurs will definitely select Victor Wembanyama. In between holes during our round of golf, my golf buddies would always burst into laughter when I keep on mentioning him as Victor Malampaya. For me it’s easier to pronounce and familiar to everybody.
For one, I haven’t mastered yet the correct pronunciation of Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, and yet here comes another tongue twister. For me Giannis or the Greek Freak is the hardest player, the hardest player to guard? Nope. The hardest name to pronounce and here comes another tongue twister. The French Phenom named Victor.
Little by little as we familiarized ourselves with the names Precious Achiuwa of Raptors or to Kristaps Porziņģis here comes another name we need to be master. Good that commentators and writers have develop some humor and wit to coin short cuts or alias names for our sports heroes or else I just can’t imagine the time they have to consume every time a sports hero with tongue twisting name come into action.
For now, I just hope that “Wemby” will slowly develop to the player he has been projected to be and adapt easily to the rigors of the NBA. Just hoping also that we can master in due time the right pronunciation of his name before the Spurs meet the Bucks in the playoffs. It would be an interesting Tongue twisting exercise come game time.
