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| Philippine Olympic Committee President Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino (Image Source: Manila Standard/Philippine Olympic Committee) |
The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) couldn’t ask for more from Filipino athletes in 2025 and the coming new year, according to president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, looks brighter as ever. “There will be more competitions overseas and more historic achievements to come for Team Philippines in 2026,” said Tolentino as he reaped praises for the marked achievements at the 33rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games — in particular the victories in women’s football, beach volleyball and basketball and the remarkable successful gold medal retention campaign in men’s 5×5 basketball. The reason for Tolentino’s positive outlook on the future? He said, “Now, we’re working together with the PSC [Philippine Sports Commission] in a harmonious way.”
Tolentino was generous in praising the country’s performance in the Thailand SEA Games held last December 2025 that despite finishing sixth overall with 50 gold medals, most of the gold medals came in the most important events — Olympic sports. In a December 29, 2025 POC news release citing an analysis of the Thailand games by Vietnamese online media platform vnexpress.net, Team Philippines’ gold medals came from Olympic sports, tying Singapore for the highest percentage among the 11 competing nations. Singapore landed fifth overall with 52 golds, 20 in aquatics — an Olympic centerpiece, while the Philippines had its share in Olympic sports of athletics (five golds), swimming (three), gymnastics (three), triathlon (three) and modern pentathlon (three). Filipino athletes also made their mark in the Olympic sports of women’s football, men’s baseball, tennis through Alex Eala, beach volleyball, basketball (2), judo (2), skateboarding (2), softball (2), taekwondo (2), rowing (1), sailing (1), short-track speed skating (1), weightlifting (1) and wrestling (1). Thailand was the runaway overall winner in its own SEA Games with 233 gold medals but in terms of winning Olympic events, it ranked fifth at 64 percent behind Indonesia and Singapore with 65 percent. “Those are what mattered the most, the gold medals from Olympic sports. And that’s where many of the points are — the Olympic goal,” said Tolentino, who, under his term as POC head, saw the Philippines win its first gold medal in Tokyo 2020 via weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz and two more in gymnastics at Paris 2024 through Carlos Yulo.
The new year gives Tolentino the same enthusiastic confidence as he acknowledged successes at the Bahrain Asian Youth Games where seven gold medals were won, Chengdu World Games that yielded two silvers and two bronzes, and the emphatic men’s curling gold medal at the Ninth Asian Winter Games in Harbin. “That made us,” said Tolentino, referring to the Harbin gold medal, the first in an international winter sports competition not only by the Philippines but for Southeast Asia. Tolentino said he’s looking forward to the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics on February 6-22 in Italy, Sanya Asian Beach Games on April 22-30 in China, and the Aichi-Nagoya 20th Asian Games in Japan on September 19-October 4. “It will be challenging this time as we will be competing in three Asian multi-sports events and we have also the Milano Winter Games and then the Youth Olympic Games. Our athletes and national sports associations are improving every year and I’m so happy to see that,” said Tolentino. Add the Dakar Youth Olympic Games on October 31-November 13 — the first Olympic games in the African continent — and in Riyadh for the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games and Tolentino stressed on another bumper year, positively baring, “All for the Filipino athlete, all for Philippine sports.”
