A safe topic for sure
MY subject matter for this piece today, aside from being definitely a safe topic, is definitely not a new one for me.
Last year, I got invited by MILO Sports Head Carlo Sampan to the same one day workshop on SafeSports with the same set of facilitators with participants coming from schools, sports clubs, and MILO sports clinic organizers.
The objective was to create more awareness for.instituting safeguards to ensure the safety of athletes, and not just from the physical side, mind you, but also from the emotional and mental side as well as they live their lives athletes, training and competing.
This is an initiative of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and all International Federations (IFs) and National Olympic Committees(NOCs) through their National Sports Associations (NSAs) are enjoined to start implementing..
Now, thanks to Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Commissioner and bowling legend Bong Coo, our national athletes, both regular and para athletes, coaches, and officials have been given the same opportunity to learn SafeSports, abd hopefully in the soonest time, the different NSA’s start crafting their own safeguarding policies .
I dropped by yesterday morning at the dining hall area of PHILSPORTS to join the workshop facilitated by Hilton Soberano, Rose Mae Lantica, Maria Leoner Estampador, and Jercy Larin, the last two forner national athletes.
Actually, this group is the 4th overall batch as previously, the office of Comm. Bong , under her Women In Sports program, sponsored the first two groups, and last Friday’s and yesterday’s sessions were the 3rd and 4th batches.
Altogether, around 25 NSAs sent representatives, including PHILSPADA, and like the format adapted by the facilitators with a lot of interactive discussions on the different scenarios and questions posed by them, all related to the issue of SafeSports.
Some of the participants were familiar faces as they were also the representatives of their NSA’s in the Media Relations Training Workshop that Patricia Hizon and I conducted for national athletes last year, also initiated by Comm. Bong.
The discussions were lively as the participants shared their own views on the various scenarios presented, actually, from my point of view, all NSA’s have their own safe guarding policies or practices for their respective groups and athletes, but what this workshop did was to connect the dots and presented it as an integrated program that is athlete -centered and covering all the differents aspects in safeguarding athletes.
I was able to talk to Rose, one of the facilitators whom I met last year and she expressed her group’s appreciation to Comm. Bong for picking up where MILO left off by bringing the program to the national level already through the 4 workshops hosted by the PSC.
Their group she said was in a limbo of sorts with limited activities though they have conducted on on line orientation on the subject matter, including in the 2022 Palarong Pambansa, but as yet, the Philippine Olympic Committee( POC) has yet to formalize its engagement with group on SafeSports.
Rose is looking at being able to create an entirely independent group solely focused on this SafeSports initiative but one concern is that they are still too small and needs additional members to carry out their aspirations.
I also got the chance to chat with Comm. Bong who was at the event and I asked her for her future plans on the subject matter.
Well, she is already thinking of doing a bigger one next year, maybe at the Philippine International Convention Center( PICC) with a bigger audience to come from Local Government Units (LGUs) and Schools and schools, both parties being involved heavily in conducting sports events.
And even looking further, doing regional ones, eyeing Cebu, Iloilo, Dumaguete, and Baguio as possible sites.
On my part, I was telling some of the athletes that in 2025, the Office of Comm. Fritz Gaston, where I work, has plans to do educational seminars on sports nutrition, sports psychology, and strength and conditioning among others.
And the response was positive.
Elma Muros, a consultant in the Office of Comm. Bong, shared that during her time as an active athlete, they did not experience this kind of learning opportunities that current national athletes are enjoying.
Well, after all, it is an ever changing world and the world of sports is not different.
For comments and suggestions, email to [email protected]
