The 2nd Philippine Olympic Festival |
Introduction
The Philippine Olympic Festival (FESTIVAL) is a multi-sport event that was launched in June 2006 by the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) as its way of celebrating the foundation day of the Olympic Movement and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). At its inaugural event, a total of 28 sports were played in 15 venues located in different parts of the country, participated in by over 6000 athletes and officiated and managed by 2,000 coaches, referees, judges and officials.
What began as a Sport-For-All initiative, the FESTIVAL seems set for continued success as a local version of the Olympics. The challenge of the proponents is to ensure that the FESTIVAL remains sustainable and immune from political changes in order to further POC’s long-term objectives in areas of talent identification and grass roots development.
To date, the Philippines has yet to win its first Olympic gold medal. The POC hopes that by way of the Philippine Olympic Festival, the necessary groundwork for the development of Filipino athletes towards Olympic Gold will be obtained.
Evolution of the Philippine Olympic Festival
Traditionally, the POC and other National Olympic Committees (NOCs) commemorate the founding day of the IOC in a one-day Olympic Day Run event held annually in June.
However, seeing the dwindling attendance at the Olympic Day Run in recent years, the POC mandated to
expand the scope, participation and duration of their Sports-For-All activity.
With zero-based budgeting, the POC utilized the Olympic Games hosting model and its strong international branding to gain the necessary momentum to launch the FESTIVAL. However, as a variation, both Olympic and non – Olympic sports will be played. Also, that the FESTIVAL will be open to all participants, including National Athletes.
With only (6) weeks to prepare, the FESTIVAL’s chairman, Mr. Robert Aventajado, created the needed impetus for the event. He actively campaigned the FESTIVAL concept to the National Sports Associations (NSA’s), the local government and sports agencies that he had personal affiliations with.
Realizing the importance of media exposure, Chairman Aventajado concurrently set up the FESTIVAL website (www.philolympicfestival.com) to advertise the calendar of events, the competition results and to acknowledge the various sponsors.
Objectives of the FESTIVAL
The FESTIVAL was organized with the following objectives:
- Development of National Games: To build on the success of the Philippines in the 2005 SEA games by providing a unified national system of competition.
- Grassroots Development: To serve as the foundation for grassroots development and “training ground” for higher level international competition.
- Propagation of the Olympic Movement: To promote harmony and propagate the Olympic values of friendship, solidarity and fair play.
- Recognition: To recognize and highlight the contributions of the Local Governments, Venue partners, Corporate Sponsors and other institutions which support Sports.
- Professionalizing Sports: To ensure that all participants have a positive experience of competition under conditions similar to the Olympic Games.
Logo of the Philippine Olympic Festival
The human figures, shown in the Olympic Colors, represent the five (5) priority sports stakeholders in the country: the POC, the Venue Partners, the Corporate Partners, the NSAs and the athletes – all embracing the Olympic ideals of friendship, solidarity and fair play.
To coincide with the 5 continents in which the Olympic games are played, the FESTIVAL will be held in 5 divisions in the Philippines: 3 in the Luzon region, 1 in the Visayas region and 1 in the Mindanao region.
Selected Highlights from the 1st FESTIVAL Launching
- The Philippine Sports Commission, and the Local Governments like the Nueva Ecija and Lanao del Norte provinces gave much support to the sports that were assigned to them. They never donated their venues or utilized their sports budgets.
- After the TRACE College donated its venue for the swimming competition, it signed an agreement with the Philippines Amateur Swimming Association (PASA) declared the required facilities for the competition as the “TRACE College Center for Excellence in Aquatics” in support of the long term development program of PASA.
- PASA also used admissions to the FESTIVAL by competitors and coaches for their membership drive. The association was able to collect over US$40, 000 of membership dues.
- Two (2) gymnastics talents were discovered during the FESTIVAL, with one already qualified to complete in this year’s Asian Junior Championship.
Benefits of the FESTIVAL to the Sport Stakeholders
Despite the time constraints and “birth pains” in organizing the inaugural, the FESTIVAL received much enthusiasm and acceptance from the various sports stakeholders, enough to generate increasing interest for future FESTIVALS.
The following represent some of the unique values of the FESTIVAL to the different stakeholders:
For the Local Government Units, the FESTIVAL
- Rationalizes the development and usage of the ports venues to its local constituents
- Sustain grassroots development in their areas, in preparation for future sports events
For the Corporate Sponsors, the FESTIVAL
- Ensures high profile awareness for their company because of the strong branding of the Olympics
- Represents a distinct national sports program with which corporations can align their company objectives to
For the National Sports Association, the FESTIVAL
- Bring awareness of their sport to inner provinces and cities
- Opens the communication channels to the Local Governments for future collaboration in minor events
- Increase demand for coaches and officials for their sport
- Helps achieve economies of scale and clout as POC represents all the participating sports to government and private entities
For the Athletes, the FESTIVAL
- Bridges the competition gap between school sports to grassroots and elite sports
- Connects grassroots talents to the NSAs and POC for training support
For the POC, the FESTIVAL
- Brings the spirit of Olympism into the mainstream consciousness of the Filipinos
- Unites the different government and private entities to support an integrated sports program for the country