Petecio on the Olympics Postponement: "It Allowed Me to Adjust"

2020 was a forgettable year for sports fans as most of the major sporting events got canceled due to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic and among the events that got scrapped was the 2020 Tokyo Olympics which was supposed to open last July 24, 2020. Instead, the Games have been rescheduled and are set from July 23 to August 8, 2021. 

While most athletes and fans alike were saddened by the postponement of the 2020 event, some saw it as a chance to make the necessary adjustment, and among those athletes is our very own boxer, Nesthy Petecio who is yet to secure a berth in the Tokyo Games. 

On Monday, Migs Bustos and Cesca Litton-Kalaw had Nesthy Petecio as their guest on Off the Record with Migs and Cesca to talk about Petecio's preparation while being one of the national team members who are currently inside the Calamba training bubble. While Petecio has yet to seal a seat in the Olympics, she revealed the postponement of the Olympics last year favored her. 

"I didn't think about myself because I wasn't able to get a slot in the Olympics. I cared more for those who have qualified already. That's where my thought was especially when it was announced that the Olympics have been postponed. For me, it's a favor," Petecio explained. While she clarified that she wasn't in favor of the postponement, she added, "I was in favor because I can still adjust. When I lost during our first Olympic qualifier, I will still have time. I wasn't in condition really. I wasn't ready for the next Olympic qualifier,"

The postponement of last year's Olympics in Tokyo, for Petecio, has a big impact. "Somehow, I can still adjust to the stress that I was experiencing, to the pressure that I was feeling," 

She concluded, "There's a reason. The Lord has a reason why the Olympics was postponed. If that pushed thru and the pandemic happened during that time, my teammates would have been pitiful. Even me if I would have been there, everyone would have been affected,"

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