As practical wisdom traditionally dictates, excellence in sports endeavors is achieved because of physically-fit bodies and brawn.
The Greeks, where from the idea of the Olympics arose, had almost perfectly chiseled bodies and vied in several contests that reflected the might and strength of men in those days of yore.
Such were the ideas that came to pass and handed down from generation to generation. Modern day sports festivals, however, evolved scientifically-based concepts that help disproved the old belief.
Today, not only do internationally-competitive athletes take the best vitamins the body needed and follow strict regimens that make champions out of them, they also take time to pursue a college course to develop and obtain a respectable intelligence quotient.
(IQ is the average or minimum percentage required of a person’s ability to learn, understand and to deal with new and trying situations. It is somewhat synonymous to common sense.)
Until this minute, the adage that “what the mind conceives, the body achieves” has not fallen short of expectation.
In our set-up, there is somehow a puny attempt to establish this practice although in a somewhat small, almost negligible pace.
Many Olympic and world champions and record-holders did hold academic degrees. They were not college dropouts nor academic failures. Some even had master’s degrees to their names. An NBA player even was elected US senator.
Right now, I can tag a few locals (like Asian Games double gold medal winner Lydia dela Vega, SEAG standouts Renato Unso, Elma Muros, some PBA cagers) who pursued higher academic norms and others more whose names escape me but who I have covered in my more than 30 years of sports writing.
It is vital that an athlete possesses a functioning grey matter in between his/her ears.
Long gone is the theory that muscle and strength can make an athlete achieve greatness in his/her chosen sport.
Sports in many advanced and progressive countries that have produced world champions and record -holders are supported by associations, alliances, business and even their governments with subsidies that even outsize our national budget.
Kenya, a small African nation that has been ruling middle and long distance races, is quite a contradiction, though. Kenyan runners, from the sixties to this age, are now being imported by the US, UK, oil-rich Middle East nations and other interested federations that dangle attractive college scholarships and amenities such as housing and pocket money.
Sadly, while we can only moan and groan, our sports leaders have resorted to invite and court Fil-Ams or Fil-foreigners who have drops of Filipino blood in their veins.
Instead of identifying native, homegrown talents and earmarking a grassroots base from where potential world-class can be developed into competitive sportsmen and women, there are those who follow the practice of ultra-rich and prosperous countries who proceed to naturalize extra-talented foreign players and claim them like they were natural citizens.
The truth is that the International Olympic Committee has itself tolerated this “importation” to ensure that the Olympic Games would gather the “crème de la crème” and so attract world-wide spectatorship. And successfully the IOC achieved its goals and the Olympics now stand as the icon of all sports festivals.
From a pure amateur beginning, the IOC opened the doors to the entry of professionals in tennis, baseball, basketball, football etc., and had the world audience in the palm of its hands.
With this as a backdrop, it makes sense that the country’s future flag-bearers and uniform wearers be measured not only by their physical gifts and talents but also what is stored in their cranial faculty. (Email your feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!
