Is the Gold beckoning?

The Olympic fever is heating up in Great Britain and right now the focus is on the torch bearers, who, hewing to the traditions of the days when the games were said to be held in the place of the gods, Mount Olympus, run for several miles in a relay involving several chosen carriers, until they reach the site of the games. Pinoys in London are ecstatic because about five Filipinos have been chosen to be torch bearers, among them that young fellow who got the CNN award as Hero of the Year.

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And it is not only England where athletes are in a tizzy of preparations. All over the world, countries big and small are getting their own athletes ready to compete, with the one getting the most medals to be declared the champions, or the Olympians of the event. Will London be the place where the Philippines will get its very first GOLD medal? That one has eluded our athletes all these years, and every time the Olympics come on, we palpitate with hope that we will make it this time. So far, silver was the farthest we could go, and, I think we only got that in boxing. A pity that Manny Pacquiao can no longer qualify to represent us there.

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But probably the games that will be the most watched will be basketball where the strongest contestants are from the Americas and Europe. Don’t be surprised if you see your favorite NBA players wearing the colors of other countries. For them, these are the countries they really belong to, the NBA teams are just, well, jobs, or shows. Spain, for instance, will have two from the famous Lakers and Grizzlies. They are the brothers Gasol, Pau and Mark, who have gone home to train with their kababayans. Also playing for Spain are athletes from the Raptors, the Nuggets, and the unlucky Thunder.

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China used to have her Yao Ming playing for the Houston Rockets but an injury has kept him out of the game and he, I think, is now doing a coaching job. What about the phenomenal Jeremy Lin, from Taiwan, who flashed like a comet in the NBA and then disappeared just as quickly? For what country would he be playing if he had not been hobbled? Alas, we do not have a Pinoy player with exposure to the NBA. There is Kris Aquino’s ex, James Yap, a star locally, but he isn’t tall enough to jostle with seven-footers like Yao Ming or the Gasol boys. But we are still participating in some events, and if we fail to land a gold again, it won’t be for lack of trying.

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This time, however, we can share reflected glory from the winning coach whose team grabbed the NBA championship. The young mentor of the winning Miami Heat is half-Filipino and seems to be proud to acknowledge it, so we can rejoice with him over this accomplishment. Will he able to keep his boys on top when the next NBA season roll around? Pinoys who used to root for the Lakers, since so many of them live in Los Angeles, seem to have shifted their admiration to the Heat, because Erik Spoelstra is their coach.

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At the moment, however, we are rooting for our champion in Philippine moviedom, the incomporable Dolphy, who is fighting for his life at the Makati Medical Center now. Officials are scrambling over each other to give Dolphy his much-deserved National Artist award, but red tape may hinder the process so that we do not know if he can still recognize his statue when he gets it, or it will turn out to be a posthumous one. Maybe that is what keeps him hanging on until now?

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Meanwhile, there’s another reason to hang out at the L’Fisher Hotel’s C’s that used to stand for Cakes, Coffee and Chocolate, and has now added Churros to its name. On Saturday, we had a good time at the Churro launching where the delicacy was cooked right before your eyes, and dipped into sinfully thick chocolate in the tasting. Mmmm… I almost forgot my chocolate allergy but that was also because we had very good company with some of Bacolod’s tourism and food connoisseurs. Congratulations to the L’Fisher group for this most welcome third C!*

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