The Philippine Sports Commission will create a technical group that will cater to the needs of athletes who have made the grade for the 2024 Paris Olympics, PSC chairperson Richard “Dickie” Bachmann said on Friday.
“We are going to have a technical working group for the (Olympic-bound) athletes and soon we would be meeting with the Philippine Olympic Committee on how the PSC will be able to help,” Bachmann said.
So far, four Filipinos have qualified for Paris 2024: Gymnasts Carlos Yulo and Aleah Finnegan, boxer Eumir Marcial and pole vaulter EJ Obiena.
Bachmann said the PSC will go the extra mile in extending financial help to them and those who would follow suit in the next few months.
The 2024 Olympics will run from 26 July to 11 August with the Philippines tasked to improve on its 1-2-1 medal tally from Tokyo.
The current cast of four is expected to increase with boxing aiming for a few more qualifiers when key events are staged in Italy and Thailand. Former Canadian squad standout Kayla Sanchez is also being eyed to qualify alongside top bets from weightlifting.
Meanwhile, Bachmann revealed that the agency will start meeting with heads of the national sports associations in the second week of January to determine how much budget each one gets for 2024.
“It’s going to be a different kind of budget hearing and we tell them how we funded them and how they spent (what we gave them). There would be lots of questions but we would be careful that we would draw the line so that there’s not going to be government intervention.”
“I have a matrix that is based on performance and I would stick to that,” Bachmann added.
