Top 10 Pinoy Sports Chronicles

by Smart Sports Staff

1) The Quest for that elusive Olympic Gold Medal

Unknown to many, the Philippines has already won two gold medals in the Olympics. However, these medals were not included in the official medal tally because they were obtained from disciplines that were just demonstration sports. Arianne Cerdena scored a gold medal in Bowling at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, while Willy Wang notched one in Wushu at the recently-concluded 2008 Beijing Olympics.

2) Proudly Filipina!



Filipina bowler Bong Coo is the most bemedaled athlete. Her collection includes 37 gold, 23 silver, and 16 bronze medals, which she won in her stints at the Asian Games, SouthEast Asian Games, and World and Asian championships. She brought home five gold medals from the Asian Games alone.

Track and field legend Lydia de Vega was considered Asia's fastest woman in the 1980s. As Asia's sprint queen, she ran away with the gold medal in the 100-meter dash in the 1982 New Delhi Asiad and duplicated the feat in the 1986 Seoul Asiad.

Victoria Manalo Draves, a Filipina-American raised in San Francisco, won two Olympic gold medals in diving's springboard and platform events in 1948 for the United States. She had a Filipino father and an English mother and was married to her coach Lyle Draves.

3) Winning Winter Athletes from the Philippines!

A tropical country that has never been covered by snow, the Philippines has produced athletes who can dance on ice. And they are not just ordinary dancers, but champion ice figure-skaters. The Philippine figure-skating team placed fourth in the 1999 World Recreational Team Championships held in San Jose, California. The Filipinos amassed 60 gold, 35 silver and 22 bronze medals to emerge fourth overall. It was a big feat for the Filipinos, considering that there were a total of 107 teams that participated in the event. Most of these teams came from cool countries like United States and Canada. In 1998, the Philippine team placed fifth overall in the same prestigious competition held in St. Louis, Missouri.

Moreover, Elizabeth Stern will be representing the Philippines in the International Competition for Figure Skating, giving her the opportunity to represent the Philippines in the upcoming Winter Olympics to be held in Vancouver Canada on 2010.

4) It runs in the family.

Jose “Cely” Villanueva won a bronze medal in Boxing’s bantamweight division at the 1932 Lost Angeles Olympiad. Three decades later, his son Anthony won a silver medal in the featherweight division at the 1964 Tokyo Olympiad. Roel Velasco won a bronze in Boxing's light-flyweight division at the 1992 Barcelona Olympiad. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympiad, his younger brother Mansueto or “Onyok” clinched a silver medal in the same weight division.

5) A First in Asia!

The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), which came into existence in 1975, was the first professional basketball league in Asia. The league was founded as a "rebellion" of several teams from the now-defunct Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association, which was tightly controlled by the Basketball Association of the Philippines (now defunct), the then-FIBA recognized national association. Nine teams from the MICAA participated in the league's first season that opened in April 9, 1975. PBA has paved the way for basketball icons and superstars such as: Robert Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez, Alvin Patrimonio, Atoy Co, Bogs Adornado, Samboy Lim, Hector Calma, Allan Caidic, Mark Caguioa, and Asi Taulava, just to name a few, and even the celebrated rivalry of teams Crispa and Toyota.

6) Philippine Basketball: A tradition of dominance and greatness

In 1913, the first ever Philippine national basketball team was formed to compete for the first Far Eastern Championship Games (the precursor of the Asian Games) held at Manila, Philippines. The country played and won its first international basketball game against China. The Philippines also won the first basketball gold medal of the Far Eastern Games.

In 1936, The Philippines participated in the first official Olympic Games basketball tournament held at Berlin, Germany. The RP team placed fifth with a 4-1 win-loss record and is the best finish by an Asian country in the Olympic men’s basketball history.

In the 1950s, the Philippine team was among the best basketball teams in the world after winning two consecutive Asian Games basketball gold medals (1951, 1954). the Philippines participated in the 1954 FIBA World Championship held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Philippines finished with a 5-2 win-loss record in the Final Round games, and captured the bronze medal. The third place-finish is still currently the best finish by an Asian country in the World Championships. Carlos Loyzaga finished as the world tournament’s third leading scorer (148 points/16.4 points per game) and was named in the FIBA World Mythical Five Selection.

In the 1960s, the first FIBA Asia Championship was won by the Philippines with Carlos Badion as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. In 1962, the Philippines won its fourth consecutive Asian Games gold medal and retained the Asian championship in 1963.

And in the SouthEast Asian (SEA) Games, the Philippines has won the Men’s Basketball Gold Medal 14 times out of the 15 SEA Games edition.

7) The Chess Grandmaster

Eugene Torre has the distinction of being the first Asian player to earn the much coveted title of International Grandmaster. After participating in 19 consecutive Chess Olympiads, Torre has recorded 86 wins, 111 draws, and 39 losses in 236 games for a total score of 141.5 points, fourth over-all in Olympiad history behind Lajos Portisch (176.5/260 games), Miguel Najdorf (145/222 games) and Svetozar Gligoric (142.5/223 games). He had manned the top board for Team Philippines for a record 17 times except in the 1970 and 2006 editions. He also has taken part in 6 Asian Chess Team Championships (1977, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1993) and once in the World Student Chess Team Championships (1969).

8) The Billiards Magician



Efren Reyes (often called by his nickname “Bata,” and is also referred to as “The Magician”) is a world-renowned professional pool player. His fame began when he won the US Open Nine Ball Championship in 1994 by defeating Nick Varner in the finals. He was the first non-American ever to win the event. As a player in professional pool, Reyes has been known to have won a number of money-rich tournaments worldwide. This makes him one of the most profitable players around. To prove it, he topped AZ Billiards Money List five times; 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006.

9) The Bowling Legend



Rafael “Paeng” Nepomuceno is a six-time World Bowling Champion and has won the World Cup of Bowling four times (1976, 1980, 1992, and 1996). He is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for three records: 1) for being the only athlete in the world to win world titles in three different decades - 70's, 80's, and 90's, 2) for being the youngest ever to win the Bowling World Cup (at age 19), and 3) for having won the most number of career championship titles worldwide.

10) The Boxing Icons



Pancho Villa, who stood only 5 feet and 1 inch (154 cm.) tall and never weighed more than 114 pounds (51 kgs.), rose from obscurity to win the World Flyweight boxing championship. On June 18, 1923, at the Polo Grounds in New York, Villa was cheered on to victory over Welsh-born boxer Jimmy Wilde by over 20,000 fans screaming "Viva Villa!" The win came by way of a knockout in the 7th round caused by a crashing right to Wilde's jaw. Villa was described as relentless, pummelling Wilde with both hands, and causing the Welshman to also drop in the fourth and fifth rounds. Wilde never fought again.

Gabriel “Flash” Elorde won the world super featherweight title on March 16, 1960 by knocking out Harold Gomes in seven rounds. He defended the crown 10 times until June 1967. This made him the longest reigning world junior lightweight champion ever (seven years and three months). He was named “the greatest world junior lightweight boxing champion in WBC history” in 1974. In 1993, he became the first Asian inducted into the New York-based International Boxing Hall of Fame. He was also enshrined into the World Boxing Hall of Fame.

Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao is currently the WBC World Lightweight Champion. He was also a former WBC World Super Featherweight Champion, IBF World Super Bantamweight Champion, and WBC World Flyweight Champion. Manny is the first Filipino and Asian boxer to win four world titles in different weight divisions. He took over as the Ring Magazine pound-for-pound number-one ranked boxer in the world on June 9, 2008 after Floyd Mayweather, Jr. announced his retirement from boxing.