We have just witnessed the best performance of the Philippines since joining the Olympics in 1924! And that included the highly elusive gold!
Imagine your country never having a gold medal and at times ending up with none at all, and then this Olympics came and got its first medal within the first three days—and with a gold! And with numerous athletes still waiting on their chance to repeat the feat, it was on its way to becoming the country’s greatest Olympics. Days later, this became realized as athletes qualified for the medal in their respective events.
The Philippines ended its Tokyo Olympics campaign with one gold, two silver, and one bronze medals—the most in terms of numbers, ever! Three of the medals (two silver and a bronze) came from boxing—the country’s most successful sport in the Games (yielding four silvers and four bronzes so far), while the country’s first gold medal was from weightlifting (now yielding a gold and a silver, all courtesy of Hidilyn Diaz). Considering that the country only had 19 athletes this year, achieving four medals is simply spectacular!
- 🥇 Hidilyn Diaz (Weightlifting)
- 🥈 Nesthy Petecio (Boxing)
- 🥈 Carlo Paalam (Boxing)
- 🥉 Eumir Marcial (Boxing)
The other non-medaled athletes also performed really well to the point of just barely missing the podium, but what’s promising is that most of them are first time Olympians! Surely, there’s so much to look forward to on the next Paris 2024 Olympics! Hopefully, we’ve past the pandemic by then so that we’ll all have the chance to witness the events in person.
Congratulations to the Philippine delegation, including all the people behind the athletes, for fulfilling the country’s dream and making us all proud! In my book, you’ve all definitely exceeded our expectations and I’m looking forward to seeing you represent the country in other games. Thank you so much for your dedication and hard work! May you get all the support you need to achieve our common goal of getting the gold medal!
runningpinoy 