As PH flag bearers, Paalam, Petecio will join very iconic company
When the Philippine delegation gets called to come out for the opening of the Paris Olympic Games, Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam will continue what seems to be a recurring theme.
Paalam and Petecio will be tasked to carry the Philippine flag for the formal start of the Summer Games, adding themselves to the list of boxers who have done so in the country’s 100th year of participation.
The silver medalists in the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Games three years earlier are the sixth and seventh sluggers in recorded Olympic history to ever hold that responsibility for the country.
Manfredo Alipala was the first boxer to do so back in the 1964 edition held in Tokyo, before Arlo Chavez followed the feat 28 years later in Barcelona.
Reynaldo Galido held the distinction in Atlanta in 1996, followed by Romeo Brin in the 2004 Athens Olympics and Eumir Marcial three years ago.
The Beijing Olympiad in 2008 saw a rare occurrence when Manny Pacquiao was tasked to carry the flag for the opening ceremonies despite not being a part of the Philippine contingent.
Swimmer Miguel Molina was supposed to do the role, owing to his success of winning four golds at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
But then President Arroyo later asked the Philippine Olympic Committee to reconsider, and the latter eventually secured special arrangements that allowed Pacquiao to take the place of Molina, who was later picked as flag bearer for the closing ceremony.
Three swimmers have carried the flag in the past, namely Tuding Lozada (1956 Melbourne), Gerardo Rosario (1976 Montreal) and Eric Buhain (1988 Seoul).
Swimming trails athletics, which has four flag bearers, including the country’s first Olympian, sprinter David Nepomuceno—PH’s lone representative in its Summer Games debut in Paris a century ago.
Archive photos in circulation show Nepomuceno, who later participated in the 100-meter and 200-m events, carrying both the flags of the Philippines and United States as the country was still under American rule.
Last trackster
Another sprinter, Anselmo Gonzaga, bannered a four-man contingent and also carried the flag in the 1928 Amsterdam Games before high jumper Simeon Toribio did it in 1936 in Berlin.
The last track and field athlete that served as flag bearer was Isidro del Prado, also a sprinter, during the 1984 edition in Los Angeles.
Basketball had two flag bearers in Francisco Vestil in 1948 in London and Jimmy Mariano in the 1972 edition in Berlin, the last time the Philippines competed in the country’s most-loved sport.
Taekwondo jin Donald Geisler served as flag bearer at the 2000 Sydney Games, the year when the martial art debuted as a medal sport.
Nine years before winning the country’s first-ever gold medal, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz made history as the first female Filipino flag bearer by doing so in the 2012 London Olympics. That was followed by the late Ian Lariba, the first Filipino table tennis Olympian, in the opener of the 2016 edition in Rio de Janeiro.
In 2021, judoka Kiyomi Watanabe shared the role with Marcial in the Tokyo Olympics, which also marked the first time that countries or teams were given an option to have one male and one female flag bearer.
Paalam and Petecio, on Friday evening local time (early-Saturday Philippine time), will join prominent flag bearers from other countries like LeBron James for the United States, Giannis Antetokounmpo for Greece and other athletes looking to create their own Olympic moment in the City of Love.
