OF the 11 Filipinos who are competing in the Olympics, weightlifter Elreen Ann Ando is perhaps the most surprised—yes, you read that right, surprised.
“It took me more than one hour to believe that I am going to the Tokyo Olympics,” Ando told BusinessMirror on Wednesday. “It’s a dream come true and I can’t hide my excitement.”
Ando was part of an nine-member team that participated in the Asian championships in Tashkent in late April. Soon-to-be four-time Olympian Hidilyn Diaz was there, too, to formally claim her berth for the Tokyo Olympics.
The team went back home with 11 medals—two golds, six silvers, and three bronzes—but no ticket to Tokyo. Ando contributed two silvers and one bronze in the campaign.
More than a month later, on Independence Day last Saturday, Ando woke up to the great news—she’s going to the Olympics.
“I thought everyone was joking. I just woke up from bed and coach Gary [Hortelano] informed me of my qualification,” the 22-year-old Cebuana said. “I never expected myself to qualify after that tournament in Tashkent.”
Ando made the Olympics by virtue of the quota given to each of the Asia, Europe, Oceania, Africa and Pan American continents. She will vie in the women’s 64-kg class.
“In fact, I was already focused on the Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam and was no longer dreaming of the Olympics,” said Ando, who intends to take up Criminology at the University of Cebu.
But now that her life as an athlete has leveled up by leaps and bounds, Ando said she will dig deep into training.
“I want to train here in Cebu, I think everything is enough here before I go to the Olympics,” she said. “Focus is very important in training and having a good mindset during the competition.”
Ando will train under Hortelano, Tony Agustin and Ramon Solis, all veteran internationalists in their prime.
On Wednesday, Philippine Sports Commission Commissioners Ramon Fernandez and Charles Raymond Maxey, along with the Cebu Sports Commission and UC, announced in a virtual news conference from Cebu City that they are providing Ando with equipment for her training.
Ando will also get her Pfizer anti-Covid-19 vaccine anytime this week at UC.
Life, she said, hasn’t been that easy for her family.
Her mom died when she was still young, while his dad, 56-year-old Lupito, suffered a stroke recently.
“My eldest sister, Donabel, has been working as a domestic helper in Qatar for the last 10 years,” she said. “We’re the only breadwinner in the family now and I don’t want Ate Donabel to work abroad any longer, so I will do my very best to win an Olympic medal—or even the gold—to reunite my family here in Cebu.”
Ando, a 2019 SEA Games silver medalist, has another sister and three brothers. She is the youngest.
“The situation of my father and my brothers and sisters inspire me to work very hard as an athlete,” she said.
Fortune awaits every Filipino athlete who bags a medal in the Olympics. Republic Act 10699 or the Athletes and Coaches Incentives and Benefits Act, rewards an Olympic gold medalist P10 million, a silver medalist P5 million and bronze medalist P2 million.
That is not counting the variable bounty from the private sector.
Diaz, meanwhile, was glad Ando will be with her in Tokyo.
“I am very happy because another Filipino qualified from weightlifting in the Tokyo Olympics,” Diaz said. “We don’t know what could happen [whether we win gold or not]. Always expect the unexpected.”