CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, PHILIPPINES
‘As a boy, he would go to the city’s sanitary landfill in upper Barangay Carmen. That’s why I called him ‘Carlo Paalam, Pipi Lata,’ the tin can crusher, because that’s what he did to earn a living’
The road leading to Carlo Paalam’s Olympic dreams was fraught with nerve-wracking trials, heartbreaking setbacks, and near misses.
Despite winning the gold during the 30th SEA Games in Manila in 2019, Paalam, like now women’s boxing silver medalist Nesthy Petecio, nearly failed to hurdle the Olympic qualifying stage. That left the now bronze medalist Eumir Marcial (75 kg) and Irish Magno (52 kg) as the only two Filipino boxers to make it.
Initially, only Marcial and Magno qualified by normal procedures in the selection of the Olympic boxers through the international standards level. Magno and Marcial passed by fighting and hurdling the heavy odds in the star-studded Asia-Oceania Olympic Boxing Qualifiers.
But luck worked wonders for Paalam and Petecio as the Olympic boxing body filled the remaining slots in several weight categories based on world rankings as other continental qualifiers had been postponed due to the pandemic.
Petecio, being the second seed overall, and Paalam as the second in Asia, eventually qualified.
The official announcement was sent by the International Olympic Committee Boxing Task Force (IOC-BTF) to the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).
Now, the native of Talakag, Bukidnon, would climb the ring as the last Filipino boxer standing and the country’s last best hope to win a gold in Tokyo, Japan.
