HOW ABOUT BRIDGE?
by Dr. Romulo A. Virola 1
Secretary General, NSCB
Sports touch many aspects of our lives. Sports help promote health awareness, peace and unity, tourism, socio-economic development, and even the protection of our environment. Not surprising therefore that many countries spend lots of money for the privilege of hosting events like the Olympics and the World Cup.
Pinoys from all walks of life, of course, love sports. If not directly into professional sports, we are either a die-hard follower of the Ginebra in the PBA; or a fanatic follower not only of Manny Pacquiao, but also of Jinky and the movie career of the lovable Mommy Dionisia; or just one of many people jogging around the Quezon City Memorial Circle or along the Manila Bay Walk early in the morning. Just recently, our very own Philippine Azkals faced the David Beckham-led LA Galaxy football team in a friendly match dubbed as a Dream Cup. Though we lost 1 to 6 ( we knew it was not going to be a dream!) , the undying support of Filipino fans was evident, many of us cheering our lungs out for every goal opportunity we had. Some of us though, may be actually rooting for a goal from Phil’s foot to Angel’s heart!
The United Nations (UN)2 define sports in a development context as a broad and inclusive spectrum of activities suitable to people of all ages and abilities, with an emphasis on the positive values of sports. In 2003, the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Sport for Development and Peace defined sport, for purposes of development, as "all forms of physical activity that contribute to physical fitness, mental well-being and social interaction such as play, recreation, organized or competitive sport and indigenous sports and games.”
Still remember when DepEd used to be DECS? Department of Education, Culture, and Sports? We do not know why it was renamed, but maybe we should reconsider?
Sport has a unique power to attract, mobilize and inspire. By its very nature, sport is about participation. The UN system draws on the unique convening power of sport as a cross-cutting tool for: a) fundraising, advocacy, mobilization and raising public awareness; and b) development and peace promotion. In addition, according to the UN Sport for Development and Peace International Working Group, sport is seen to have the most benefits in: a) individual development; b) health promotion and disease prevention; c) promotion of gender equality; d) social integration and the development of social capital; e) peace building and conflict prevention/resolution; f) post-disaster/trauma relief and normalization of life; g) economic development; and i) communication and social mobilization. So yes, bridge players can be athletes too! Including "elderly” and senior citizen bridge players!
Long before the Pambansang Kamao and the Azkals became popular, the Philippines already was home to internationally acclaimed athletes and Hall of Famers like Paeng Nepomuceno and Olivia "Bong” Coo in bowling, Caloy Loyzaga in basketball, Efren "Bata” Reyes in billiards, Gabriel "Flash” Elorde in boxing, Lydia "Diay” de Vega, Elma Muros, and Mona Sulaiman in athletics, and Teofilo Yldefonso and Akiko Thomson in swimming, among others.
It is also worth noting that in the happiness3 studies conducted by the NSCB, among the Pinoys in the sample (not random though), while leisure and sports ranked only 17th out of 19 as the most important domain of happiness, it ranked 6th in terms of actual level of happiness.
Most of us of course were very unhappy about the Philippine performance in the recent SEA Games (SEAG) held in Palembang, Indonesia last month. As has been a national pastime, as soon as the many sports officials and underfunded poor athletes came back, there were cries for congressional investigation and for the creation of a Department of Sports. These would of course die a natural death, until the next sports debacle.
Given our sports history, there is really no reason why we should be humiliated in these sports competitions the way we have been lately. We should learn to analyse the problem more objectively, more scientifically. We should use sports statistics.
The statistical community recognizes sports statistics as an important field to help promote understanding, development, and good practice of statistics worldwide. The International Statistical Institute (ISI), which is one of the oldest scientific organizations in the world and the largest global association of statisticians has created a Sports Statistics Committee4, as one of its special interest groups. The ISI Sports Committee aims to promote the development and dissemination of useful and comparable sports statistics among countries in the world.
The 2011 SEA Games disaster should be analysed using sports statistics. We are one of the old athletes in the Philippine delegation amusingly but endearingly ( so we hope, as he himself is many decades older than a spring chicken!) written about by Gerry Carpio of the Philippine Star. We were a member of the Philippine Men’s Bridge Team. While we personally did not win any medal, the bridge contingent of 13 "elderly” athletes and 1 official won 2 gold medals, 2 silver medals and 1 bronze medal, better than what some of the funded delegations harvested. In fact, we had to pay for all our expenses5 and our government would not even allow us to participate on official leave! Nonetheless, we devote this month’s Statistically Speaking to highlight the sports sector, to promote sports statistics in the country, and hopefully, enlighten our decision makers on the need to support our athletes.
The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) takes the lead role in promoting and advocating for the development and improvement of sports in the country. At present, the PSC supports 52 National Sports Associations (NSAs) through provision of necessary funds for purchase of sports equipment for training and actual competitions and other miscellaneous expenses. Undoubtedly, we used to excel in various sports like basketball, baseball, swimming, and taekwondo, and we are sure the PSC did many things to make this happen. However, an examination of sports statistics on the country’s performance in the SEA Games indicates a trend that we cannot be proud of.
Statistics about the 2005-2011 SEA Games
Let us look at some statistics on the country’s participation in the recently concluded 26th SEAG held in Palembang, Indonesia from November 11-22, 2011 and in the three SEA Games preceding Palembang. In deciding the overall ranking of the countries, the present practice in the SEAG is to rank the countries depending on the number of gold medals won. The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) Chair Jose "Peping” Cojuangco Jr. is proposing6 a point system to determine the overall championship in the future SEA Games by giving weights also to silver and bronze medals. Since we are not truly aware of what Cong. Cojuangco will propose other than that it would be based on the Palarong Pambansa scoring system, we decided to compute the ranking based on present practice and alternatively, based on two sets of weights: (a) 10 for each gold, 4 for each silver, and 2 for each bronze, and (b) 10 for each gold, 3 for each silver, and 1 for each bronze.
GOLD MEDALS WON1
Out of the 11 participating countries in the 2011 SEAG, the Philippines officially placed 6th overall, garnering 36 golds, 56 silvers, and 77 bronzes, totaling to 169 medals. The host country Indonesia emerged as overall champion and took 182 golds, 151 silvers, and 143 bronzes, followed by Thailand and Vietnam. (Tables 1 and 2)
Using the two sets of alternative weights, the ranking for the 2011 SEAG practically did not change from the official SEAG ranking: Indonesia was first, followed by Thailand and Vietnam; and the Philippines still ranked 6th. Using the weighted scoring systems which accounted for silvers and bronzes, Brunei Darussalam however overtook Timor Leste at 10th place. The results could be an indication that Cong. Cojuangco’s proposed scoring system may not make much difference in the overall rankings. (Table 4)
Aggregating the results for the 2005-2011 SEAG, Thailand ranks first overall, followed by Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. We are still ahead of Singapore, but already, Singapore got more golds than the Philippines in 2007 and 2011; if we do not plan and support our athletes well, our cumulative advantage over Singapore might be dissipated if not in Myanmar in 2013, surely, in Singapore in 2015. (Tables 1 and 2)
HOST COUNTRY EFFECT
3
In the last 4 SEAG, except for Lao PDR when it hosted the 2009 SEAG, whoever was host country became the overall champion: the Philippines in 2005, Thailand in 2007 and Indonesia in 2011. It is unlikely that the next host Myanmar will be overall champion in 2013, but we will see if Singapore can sustain the pattern when it hosts in 2015. (Tables 1 and 2)
GOLD/TOTAL MEDALS WON PER 10,000,000 POPULATION
The larger the population, the more options in the choice of athletes to train and send to international competitions, and the better the chances of winning medals. China’s example supports this. And since we have the second largest population in ASEAN after Indonesia, we could be expected to do very4 well in the SEAG. But we are proving this theory wrong, possibly an indication of our distorted or at least ineffectual priorities in the development of sports in the country. In fact on the basis of gold medals won per 10,000,000 population, we would have placed even worse: 8th in 2011, and 7th on the average from 2005-2011. The ominously disastrous trend lurks if we look at the total medals won by Pinoy athletes per 10,000,000 population – 34 in 2005, 26 in 2007, 13 in 2009, and 18 in 2011 placing 5th in 2005, down to 6th in 2007, and horrors of all horrors, down to 10th in both 2009 and 2011. In 2011, the top three countries were Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, and Lao PDR. Misery may love company, and we note that Indonesia was 9th, while Thailand was 6th. (Table 3)
TOTAL MEDALS WON BY NSA5
Based on the number of gold medals won in 2011, taekwondo topped the list among NSAs with 4 golds, 3 silvers, and 5 bronzes. The other top performing NSAs were boxing, billiards, athletics, cycling, wushu, wrestling, bridge, and softball, with at least two gold medals each. Winning the most number of medals were athletics, cycling and taekwondo with 16, 14, and 12 medals, respectively. Billiards and wushu got 9 medals each. (Table 5)
For 2005-2011, the top NSAs in terms of gold medals won6 were athletics (23), aquatics (23), boxing (18), wushu (17), and billiards (17). In terms of total medals won, tops are athletics (80), aquatics (77), taekwondo (46), boxing (44), and wushu (41). (Table 5)
MEDALS PER PESO ALLOTTED BUDGET BY NSA7
We could not get information on the actual funds provided to the different NSAs. Bridge was initially going to be funded but as the opening of the 2011 SEAG neared, we were asked if we could guarantee a gold medal and when we honestly said we could not, we were told that we would not receive funds. But the PSC passed Board Resolution No. 165-2011 approved in March 20117 , providing budgetary allotment to the different NSAs. Per PhP 100,000 budget allotment under this resolution, the NSAs with the most number of gold medals were bridge, billiards, finswimming, boxing, and taekwondo. On the other hand, bridge, soft tennis, billiards, athletics, and wrestling had the most in terms of the number of total medals won. (Tables 6 and 7)
We had wanted to analyze the sports statistics on medals won per athlete and per official sent by each NSA. Unfortunately, the data to support these computations could not be made available. We therefore hope that the PSC/POC will also invest on statistics in the future so that we can be better guided in the development of our sports programs.
We used to dominate sports in South East Asia; sadly, in the 2011 Sea Games we fell behind smaller nations such as Vietnam and Singapore. If we want to do much better in Myanmar in 2013, this early, we need to take a look at the sports situation in the country. We need to review our sports program, we need to assess the performance of our sports officials, and we need to provide much more support to our athletes. All these should be addressed soonest and in a sustained manner so that we can bring back the glory days of Philippine sports.
The sports statistics cited should serve as tools for the development and improvement of programs and policies in the sports sector. They can guide us towards the sports events that we should focus on in future SEA Games – those that give us the highest probability of winning gold medals with the least cost. Basketball, football ? Seemingly sure bets are athletics, aquatics, taekwondo, boxing, billiards and wushu. And bridge maybe?
Certainly, statistics will help us towards evidence-based decision making in sports. But good governance in the POC, PSC, and in the NSAs is a must. And Corporate Sports Responsibility will surely be useful!
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