Olympic Hopefuls to Enter Calamba Training Bubble

The search for the Philippines' Olympic gold medal gets another boost.

Earlier this week, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases finally allowed Olympic-bound Filipino athletes to train inside a bubble at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna.  The development came several months' worth of waiting to get approval. This means that national team members under the supervision of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), can resume training that was halted by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The good news is: the said bubble will not be only open for Olympic-bound athletes. The Calamba bubble will also be used by Filipinos who are still in the process of qualifying for Olympic berths. 

Among those who will get the first taste of the bubble next month are 16 boxers, five taekwondo jins, and eight karatekas who will enter a 90-day camp. Participants will be required to follow guidelines that will be put together by the PSC and for PSC Chairman Butch Ramirez, those guidelines will be stricter than what the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) had for the recently-concluded Clark bubble all-Filipino conference. 

In an interview, Ramirez said, "If this succeeds with the 10 guidelines  and protocols, we might expand to all qualified athletes and deserving athletes,"

For now, only those whom the PSC believes have a "big chance" of qualifying for an Olympic berth will train inside the Calamba bubble. 

Photo is from Rappler