PINOY SPORTSMEN PAY TRIBUTE TO MANDELA
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 08 Dec 2013
?Sports has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else can.? ? NELSON MANDELA
With those words, Mandela ,a lover of sports and an ex-boxer and the first South African black president, rallied the black and white people to unite his country against the mantle of racial oppression.
Not one leader of a nation has ruled using sports as a common passion and a rallying point in achieving his goal.
For Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, the late African head of state, who died Thursday last week due to lingering lung illness, is a symbol of hope, not only to his struggling countrymen, but, likewise to the downtrodden all over the world.
?The late president Mandela, even if he?s no longer with us, will serve as inspiration to all who would like to escape the bonds of poverty and oppression so that, in the end, savor the sweet taste of success,? Pacquiao, who along with some of the country?s sports leaders, joined the world sporting celebrities in paying tribute to the man, said in Tagalog.
?I have read and learned so much about President Mandela?s success in extricating his people in their relentless struggle against apartheid at masasabi kong lahat ng kanyang nagawa para labanan ang racial discrimination ay galing sa mga aral na nakukuha sa sports,? the only man to win 10 world titles in eight different weight divisions, and in four lineal categories said.
?He was jailed for nearly three decades para ipangtanggol ang kanyang paniniwala at sa kanyang paglabas ng kulungan and, eventually, pamunuan ang kanyang bansa ay nakuha pa niyang patawarin ang mga umapi sa kanya at sa kanyang kababayan,? Pacquiao said. ?How I wish more sportsmen are elected president of their countries.?
The country?s top sports leaders like Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose ?Peping? Cojuangco and Philippine Sports Commission chair Ricky Garcia and several spports associations officials mourned Mandela?s passing.
Former Senator and basketball?s living legend Robert ?Sonny?: Jaworski, for his part, said what he likes about the Nobel Peace Laureate is he never was drunk with power.
?What makes a leader, a world leader at that, marginalized in his own country is for him to get drunk with power. President Mandela had none of that, ?Jaworski, ?The Big-J? or ?Jawo? to his fans and associates, said.
?I consider President Mandela as a genius in his own right. He understood the word reality well. He knows power is not permanent.
Even the sun, at the end of the day, comes down,? he philosophized.
A true leader gives hope, inspires, but the bottom line is a leader should have humility and none of vengeance. Mandela had much of the former and none of the latter,? the former Barangay Ginebra playing coach in the PBA assessed.
For Ramon Segismundo of Meralco, the newly-designated chair of the Philippine Basketball Association, the late South African Chief Executive is an icon of unity, discipline, can do spirit and thriving on adversity.
?As we build a strong, progressive and dynamic baskeball nation, we should reflect on Mandela?s lie to inspire our country to move forward despite our continuing natural and man made challenges,? Segismundo said.
Mandela?s reach in sports was global. He was an amateur heavyweight fighter and known to have admired the late world heavyweight champion Joe Louis. While detained at Robben Island, he practiced the sport kee4p fit and ?sane.?
Mandela led by Cape Town?s bid for South Africa to host the 2004 Olympic Games, arguing that the Greatest Sports Show on Earth have been held in the four other continents.
?Not is the time for Africa to complete the five Olympic Rings,? he told the International Olympic Committee General Assembly meeting that discussed Cape Town?s Olympic bid in 1996.
The hosting was eventually awarded to Athens but this did not stop Mandela from participating as a torchbearer during the Olympic relay on the way to Athens which had a stop at Rodden Island.
At the height of Africa?s fight for independence, he urged the whole nation in supporting the national rugby team during the 1995 Rugby World Cup hosted by South Africa.
Called the ?Springboks,? the team with a solitary black player in the roster, beat New Zealand to win the championship.
That title victory inspired the movie titled ?Invictus? that made an impressive run in the box office. Mandela presented the William Webb Ellis Cup symbolic of world Cup supremacy to team captain Francois Peenaar complete with Springboks uniform that was made a part of the film.
Through his efforts, South Africa became the first African nation to play host to the Soccer World Cup in 2010. He shun the opening ceremony though after his granddaughter Zenani was killed in a cars accident when going home after attending the opening day concert.
He attended the final game though in one of his last public appearances.
Photo: Getty Images.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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