ALTHOUGH the Philippines has yet to win its first Olympic gold, not too many people probably know that the country has produced a Filipino Olympic gold medallist in Victoria Manalo Draves.
This piece of invaluable data was relayed to me only the other day by San Francisco-based Dr. Christian Bocobo, my co-author of the book “Legends and Heroes of Philippine Basketball.”
Christian said he came across this info through the Internet. He doesn’t remember the year, but Vicki, as he and her contemporaries call her, won in the diving event, according to him.
The gold was never credited to the Philippines because Vicki was an American citizen and carried the colors of the United States.
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Immediately, I called trivia man Bong Barrameda who I know is only one of the very few who could fill in the blanks and provide me with more info on Draves.
To start with, I wanted to know if Draves was her married name, because Christian had referred to her as Vicki Manalo.
“Vicki married her diving coach whose surname is Draves,” said Bong who couldn’t remember the coach’s first name. “And she won two golds, not just one,” Bong corrected.
“Vicki swept the two diving events, platform and springboard, in the l948 London Olympics. She was the first female diver to sweep the two events, if I remember correctly,” said the country’s greatest researcher, the same guy who produces for television events of such magnitude as the Asian Games and the Olympics.
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I forgot to ask if he witnessed this event personally, but according to Bong, Vicki visited the Philippines after the Olympics where she participated in a diving exhibition at the Rizal Memorial swimming pool.
“Nagkaroon pa nga ng motorcade when she arrived,” Bong related. “She was feted by no less than Elpidio Quirino who was the president then.”
Gosh, that was a long, long time ago because the rate of exchange during Quirino’s time was only two pesos to a US dollar.
Bong isn’t sure, but he said Draves could be guilty of robbing the country’s two Olympic golds.
Although she was raised in the US, Vicki, whose father is Filipino (from Orani, Bataan) and whose mother is British, could have become an American citizen only after she married her coach, according to Bong, who describes the lass as a Tita Duran look-alike.
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WBC light flyweight champ Brian Viloria’s situation would have drawn a parallel, had he won the gold in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he competed.
Unlike Vicki, though, Brian is a full-blooded Filipino, if not a full-blooded Ilocano, whose values remain Filipino.
“We respect our elders, we never talk back and we obey our parents. At dusk, all of us kids are expected to be in the house and we all follow this rule. I have had my share of whackings from my dad’s belt when I’ve been a bad boy,” related Brian who would never dream of calling 911 to report his dad for child abuse, like American kids do, faced with a similar situation.
Brian delighted sportswriters with his wit and gift of gab during a mini press conference at Oakwood last Thursday.
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Brian said he had tried other disciplines like judo, wrestling, table and lawn tennis, but none made his adrenalin flow as much as boxing.
“Even my own manager Gary Gittelsohn has advised me to get out of boxing if I could, because it was too dangerous, but I just couldn’t. It’s my passion,” Brian said.
While his father Ben chooses not to talk him out of his chosen sport, he admits that he freezes up every time Brian is in action.
“More than the actual bouts, what really scares me is the sparring. Kasi yung mga kalaban niya sa actual fights, kasing liit lang niya. Yung mga ka-spar niya, malalaki di hamak sa kanya,” Ben said.
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Brian at 25, is unattached. He doesn’t even have a girlfriend because “right now, I’m married to boxing,” a sport which he would’ve given up had Ruben Contreras, the Mexican fighter whom he sent into a coma with his deadly punches last year, died.
“I had sleepless nights after that fight. I kept thinking of Contreras’ family. What would happen to them if he died. I would never have forgiven myself.”
It was also Contreras who gave him back his career because he recovered completely. The incident is behind him now.
If Manny Pacquiao chose to Jericho Rosales to portray him in a film about his life, who would Brian pick to portray him?
“Ogie Alcasid!” Brian replied without batting an eyelash. “They say I look very much like him.”
