INTRODUCTION
With pride and confidence, we are sending our athletes off today to the greatest of all international competitions, the Centennial Olympic games in Atlanta.

I am certain that this time, they are going to the Olympics with a difference — they are better prepared, higher in morale, stronger in spirit and better motivated — coming as they do from this nation that has risen mightily from adversity, a Philippines whose recent economic and social achievements have won the admiration of the international community. Our athletes can do their best in Atlanta with their hearts and courage full and their heads held high.

I wish you the very best as you go. Your countrymen and countrywomen carry high hopes that this will be the year anyone of you dozen Olympians will bring home the elusive Olympic gold medal. I share this hope with them. Go for it! Go for the gold! Go! Go! Go!
THE PHILIPPINES’ OLYMPIC PARTICIPATION
Looking back on our 68 years’ participation in the Olympics, we have won seven Olympic bronze medals and one silver medal since the day in 1928 when an Ilocano swimmer named Teofilo Yldefonso brought home the first Philippine medal, a bronze in the 200-meter breaststroke from the Amsterdam Games.

Four years later, Yldefonso won the bronze again in the same event. But this time, he was in good company — in fact, the most productive Olympic delegation the Philippines ever had. Two other Filipino athletes — high jumper Simeon Toribio and bantamweight boxer Jose “Cely” Villanueva — each won a bronze medal at the 1932 games in Los Angeles. The three bronzes won by the delegation represent the highest achievement by Filipinos in the Games.

When Miguel White won another bronze, this time at the 1936 Berlin Olympiad, many thought the Philippines was well on the way to becoming one of Asia’s top sporting nations in this world event.

But World War II came and everything came undone. The recovery in the postwar period was slow-paced, and sports suffered. Only the silver medal won by Anthony Villanueva, son of Cely Villanueva, at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics provided a shining moment to our lusterless performance at the Olympics.

The Philippines did not win again until 1988, when Leopoldo Serrantes bagged a bronze in boxing’s light flyweight division in the Seoul Olympics. Four years later, we again got another bronze. It was won by another light flyweight boxer, Roel Velasco, at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

I am recounting these experiences not because they are especially good, but because they are our own and we can be proud of the valiant efforts of our past Olympians. Our experiences tell us that we can do a lot better and now is the time to do it, when we are vigorously striving for excellence in every field. On your prowess and will to win rest our hopes for greater triumphs at the Olympics.
DO YOUR BEST
The prospects look bright for a Filipino boxer to win another medal. But let the entire delegation strive to score his or her best. Remember that the brave and stout-hearted can summon all the tenacity, endurance and strength to become the best in the world.

On this day as you set forth, my prayers, those of the first lady and the entire nation go with you. Let the words of the Greek poet Pindar remind you what the Olympics are all about: “The sun warms more than any lesser star, and no festival outshines Olympia. Whoever wins your shining prize, Olympia, wears glory always.”

In closing, let me thank all the sponsors from the private sector who have made the trip to Atlanta possible. Their generosity has already won them gold medals in the hearts of the Filipino people.

Thank you and good luck!