The national athletes will be Richard “Dickie” Bachmann’s main focus as he formally starts his role as chairperson of the Philippine Sports Commission.
The newly-appointed PSC chief stressed that his first order of business is to take care of the athletes as they vie in various major international tournaments this year.
Aside from the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia in May, Filipino athletes will also see action in the 19th Asian Games in China in September and the 6th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Thailand in November.
They will also compete in various Olympic qualifying tournaments in a bid to surpass the golden success posted by Hidilyn Diaz in Tokyo two years ago.
More than that, Gilas Pilipinas will see action in the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Manila in August while the Filipinas will compete in the FIFA Women’s World Cup in New Zealand in July.
“When I stepped in, I already had plans. I already had things to do,” Bachmann, a longtime corporate executive, said in a television interview Friday.
“My focus on my term will be the athletes because if you look at the calendar for this year, there’s a lot of tournaments. We also have the FIBA World Cup.”
Bachmann stressed that they will leave no stone unturned in providing the needs of the athletes, especially nutrition, allowances and training facilities.
“My focus for the athletes would be their nutrition and making sure they are properly fed so they perform properly,” the 54-year-old Bachmann said.
“I will also look into the allowances and one thing about allowances is basically no delays on allowances. I will also look at the training facilities. If I have to rehab any training facilities, we have to do it for the athletes.”
Bachmann knows that to achieve his goals, he needs to have a solid working relationship with the Philippine Olympic Committee and various national sports associations as well as the employees of the government sports agency.
“After the athletes, I have the NSAs. I will closely coordinate with them. We have to work together for the athlete to perform,” he said.
“All these events, there should be a good relationship between the POC and PSC. I will be asking the POC to actually have a task force for us so we can discuss and align our vision and mission for all the events leading to the Olympics.”
