Five takes from the Paris 2024 Olympics

August 20, 2024

MANILA – The Paris 2024 Olympics have come and gone, and it went better than we expected. We predicted that Carlos Yulo would be the top Filipino Olympian to watch out for this time around, and our gut feel was rewarded with not one, but two gold medals. That’s history.

The Olympics was just 16 days (!) but so many things happened in that span of a little over two weeks that the whole thing might as well have felt like three whole months. It’s what happens when the news cycle is always on from the heart of the Games. Social media may have just made Paris the most controversial Olympics in recent memory, so here are five things I need to react to.

The Philippines seems to be good at breaking (outdated) gender norms

The biggest story for the Philippine delegation is Yulo winning golds for men’s gymnastics. Between that and Hidilyn Diaz’s first gold for weightlifting three years ago as well as our women boxers bringing home bronzes this time around, it seems that the country does have a knack for doing well in sports that aren’t “stereotypically” masculine or feminine.

Of course, three sports are a small sample size, but it is fun to think about and encourage anyone to pursue any sport they want to do. We now shouldn’t discount the potential of any Filipino to win big just because a sport is traditionally “for boys” or “for girls.”

Whoever is in charge of the other sports are still embarrassing

This is not another “basketball vs. other sports” take, but it is still pretty shameful that the others either can’t get support or don’t seem to care. The most embarrassing situation is with the Filipino golf delegation, who couldn’t even get a bare minimum of bespoke team jerseys. They had to make do with taping a