NEARLY a year has passed since Inna Palacios and Agatha Wong played their parts in blazing trails of history for the Filipina athlete in the international stage.
And they did so in sports long considered to be male-dominated in nature — football and wushu, respectively.
READ: HIS-STORY: How Hergie Bacyadan made his country and community proud in Paris Olympics
This time last year, Palacios and the Filipinas debuted in the grandest stage of women’s football at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
With 52 caps to her name, the 12-year veteran goalkeeper didn’t make the final cut in former shot-caller Alen Stajcic’s 23-woman World Cup squad and was, instead, listed as one of three reserves alongside Maya Alcantara and Isabella Pasion.
Palacios joined the traveling squad to New Zealand and was one with the nation in backing the Filipinas in a breakthrough like no other as the country made not only its first appearance but also recorded its first World Cup win at the host nation’s expense.
For her pioneering contributions to women’s football and for the country through the years, Palacios, too, will long be etched in the annals of Philippine sport.
No barrier will ever be too big
However, the bigger pursuit for the 30-year-old goalkeeper isn’t just about making a mark for herself and the Filipinas, but rather ensuring that the path they’ve paved in this historic conquest will make women’s football more accessible for every aspiring Filipina who seeks to tread such path.
With an abundance of talent in the women’s game too good to stay still in the shadows of a male-dominated sport, Palacios hopes time will come that such a barrier will be shattered once and for all.
“I think the biggest barrier for football and for women's football would be the opportunity to play, the opportunity to be seen. Because of that, there are so many talents that we miss out on, when in fact, there are so many of us that are good enough — not just for the Philippines, but to the whole world," she said.
“I mean, the women's team was able to make it to the World Cup, and the men could not. But even then, we have much less support.”
Representation always matters
The visibility garnered by Philippine women’s football through the World Cup isn’t just one for the rest of the sporting world to take in, but more so for the Filipina child hoping to carve her path in a world once deemed too big for her.
“To see that young kids now aspire to be like us, like you, like everyone's doing here. Now kids see us, you're visible, you become a role model. You don't know how much you can change their lives," she continued.
“That's why I'm so grateful because maybe one of the kids up here, just someone walking, would hear us talk and then they say, ‘you know what, I want to pursue my dreams. I want to keep playing, whatever that sport is. They just need to see that they can."
“For me, that's the biggest gift one Filipino athlete can give to another.”
And for Palacios, at the core of such a long-term vision must be the belief and trust that no dream should fall flat out of the fear of failure.
“We really need to talk about the passion and the belief that one has to be able to reach their full potential. If none of us believed that we can, and none of us had the passion to pursue our dreams, then we wouldn't be able to achieve everything that we have.”
Impossible is nothing for the Filipina athlete
Injuries, medical school, gender barriers, and everything in between.
These are the brunt that Wong had to carry even as her decorated sporting career continues to hit new highs.
The 26-year-old had a grade 2 slipped disc and a patellar tendonitis on her right knee before pulling off a bronze-winning showpiece in the taijiquan event of the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.
Six years later, and nearly two decades into the world of martial arts, Wong is now a five-time Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold and two-time silver medalist, on top of two more silver medals to her name in the World Wushu Championships.
And just last year, Wong added a new chapter concurrent to her sporting career upon embarking in the field of medicine at University of the East.
Bigger balancing act needed
Juggling med school with her wushu career is one thing she learned to deal with over the span of the last year.
Two years into her medical pursuit lies the goal of becoming an exemplar for every single dreamer not to be fazed by the prospect of shooting for the stars.
“For me as an athlete, I don't really believe something is hard unless I experience it. Every time, people tell me ‘it's going to be hard, you're going to have a hard time,’ I don't really believe them," she shared.
“It’s doable. I don't know why people keep telling me ‘you have to choose just one.’ But now, I want to teach not only women but also men that you can do both things. You can love two things at the same time, but not in relationships though," she added.
“If you have something that you're really passionate about but you feel conflicted because you love another thing, it's okay. You just try to excel at the same time with both because that's what I did.”
But for Wong, there’s a much bigger balancing act that has to be done not only for her but for every Filipina who seeks to follow her path, or better yet, pave their own.
An ‘ate’ to look up to
Entering the field of wushu at 14 years old without having a female senior to look up to was a challenge in itself — more so in combat sports.
Now a captain of a nearly all-boys team, Wong shares her most vital takeaways on her experience of being the "alpha" in a male-dominated squad.
“My sport has taught me to break gender barriers, you know, just to show up every day, regardless of whether you want to go to training or not, because it's all about discipline. It's all about your resiliency," she stated.
“It's all about just being yourself among, especially, men.”
Women supporting women, in the simplest sense, can go such a long way in putting forth a world where sport sees no gender in terms of opportunities to compete, chances to grow and moments to thrive.
“As I grew older, now that I'm slowly starting to have more female teammates that are younger than me, I see the value of having an older woman to look up to because when I was little, I didn't have that. I had to rely on the males in my team. That was really different from having an older sister teammate because now I can guide my women teammates."
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