THE Olympians have spoken. Will the collegiate leagues budge?
Potential inclusions of the sports of weightlifting and boxing in the athletic calendars of the major collegiate leagues in the country have definitely garnered steam since all four Filipino medalists in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics batted the idea last week.
Boxing, weightlifting in UAAP, NCAA?
"Sana makita po natin na yung mga medalist natin (came from) boxing at weightlifting. Wala pong boxing at weightlifting sa UAAP and NCAA. Sana ma-consider natin na ipasok," said Hidilyn Diaz, who delivered the country's first-ever gold medal in the nation's 97-year participation in the Olympiad, at the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum.
Since 2017, Diaz has been studying business management at St. Benilde.
Bronze medalist Eumir Marcial agreed, saying, "Sana mapasok yung boxing sa mga NCAA, pati women’s para ma-inspire din yung ibang atleta na boksingero na mag-aral."
Marcial, same with Olympic silver medalists Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam and fellow Olympian Irish Magno, have all attended University of Baguio.
Truly, these athletes' words hold merit, especially with how big of a source of pride their accomplishments in Tokyo have brought to the country especially in this time of pandemic.
And for these Olympians, all they hope is for younger athletes to follow their footsteps.
Safe to say, the leagues are listening.
"I have come across calls regarding the inclusion of weightlifting in the UAAP roster of events and will bring it up to the attention of the board in due course," said UAAP executive director Atty. Rebo Saguisag.

"In the meantime, it's time to celebrate the achievements of our Olympic contingent," continued the amiable official who overseas the collegiate league which houses Adamson, Ateneo, La Salle, Far Eastern University, National University, University of the East, University of the Philippines, and University of Santo Tomas.
NCAA Season 97 Management Committee chairman Dax Castellano also shared the same sentiment, noting, "The league has been open to innovation and new proposals on sports discipline. In fact, Mr. Efren Supan currently brought this up with the committee."
"Our association is committed to produce athletes for our national team to represent our country in International competitions. Just like in the past, we are willing to discuss this idea and hopefully come up with recommendations on adopting new events," furthered the St. Benilde official, with the NCAA also being the home for Arellano, Emilio Aguinaldo College, Jose Rizal University, Letran, Lyceum, Mapua, Perpetual, San Beda, San Sebastian.
Among the two sports, weightlifting has more traction given that varsity teams from both the UAAP and the NCAA have their own weight rooms which their athletic teams routinely use.
Both leagues hold competitions on sports namely basketball, volleyball, athletics, swimming, football, lawn tennis, table tennis, badminton, taekwondo, 3x3 basketball, and beach volleyball, as well as non-Olympic sports like chess and cheerdance.
The UAAP also stages events for Olympic events like baseball, softball, fencing and judo, while the NCAA last held soft tennis competitions, a non-Olympic sport, during the 2016-17 season.
Boxing has routinely been asked in past press conferences, though officials for both leagues were non-committal on the discipline due to its apparent violent nature.
It's the stance taken by the CESAFI why it chose not to include it in their athletic calendar.
"The Board disapproved it a few years ago as it was considered a violent contact sport," said CESAFI commissioner Felix "Boy" Tiukinhoy Jr.
What CESAFI has been at the forefront of is the inclusion of weightlifting in its roster of sports, with the inaugural competitions being held starting the 2018-19 season.
"We are the only collegiate league that has weightlifting in our calendar," Tiukinhoy boasted of his league that features Cebu Eastern College, Cebu Institute of Technology, Don Bosco, Southwestern University PHINMA, University of Cebu, UC - Lapu-Lapu & Mandaue Campus, University of San Carlos, University of San Jose-Recoletos, University of Southern Philippines Foundation, and University of the Visayas.
"The schools have student-athletes for weightlifting, and the Cebu Weightlifting Association, Inc. has a grassroots program here developing and training potential national team-caliber weightlifters."
Indeed, weightlifting is one of the 15 sports being played in the CESAFI competitions, which includes athletics, badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, chess, dancesport, football, futsal, karatedo, lawn tennis, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, and volleyball.
Olympic weightlifter Elreen Ando actually studies at UC.
As for the other leagues in Manila, as good of a proposal as the inclusion of these sports are, it all depends on the schools' capabilities of putting up their own varsity teams for these disciplines.
"It's a very welcome proposal to us and we're willing to do it as long as the schools are able to do it," said UCBL president Franklin Evidente.
The league, composed of Centro Escolar University, Olivarez College, Diliman College, LPU-Batangas, University of Batangas, Technological Institute of the Philippines, and PCU-Dasmarinas, have explored on extending their sports more than just on basketball and volleyball and soon rebrand to its corporate name of Universities and Colleges Athletic League (UCAL).
Meanwhile, officials in NAASCU are still divided on these calls, with the likes of St. Clare College favoring the move while the others like Our Lady of Fatima University disapproving it owing to the mounting costs of putting up another varsity team.
The league currently has basketball, volleyball, athletics, swimming, cheerdance, chess, taekwondo, badminton, table tennis, and billiards in its roster of sports which are disputed by schools namely St. Clare, Fatima, Enderun Colleges, Saint Francis of Assisi College, Philippine Christian University, Philippine Merchant Marine School, New Era University, De La Salle Araneta University, Manuel L. Quezon University, Technological University of the Philippines, AMA University, Holy Angel University, and City University of Pasay.
It truly is an appealing idea for these leagues to take, but as officials noted, some of these are beyond their control.
Indeed, introducing new sports offer new opportunities but it also requires its own sets of challenges, finance-wise and competition-wise, especially as these schools try to slowly recover from the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But like Diaz proved in Japan, nothing is impossible with the Filipino fortitude.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph