Target ng Bashing, Bibida sa Olympics 2024! | Share Ko Lang
"Papatulan ko ba 'to?"
Ang daan patungong 2024 Olympics ng world's no. 2 pole vaulter na si EJ Obiena ay minsang naging baku-bako dahil sa mga akusasyon laban sa kanya mula sa national sports association na kinabibilangan niya.
Matapos malinis ang kanyang pangalan, pinili niya pa rin manatili sa Philippine team. Kung bakit, iku-kuwento niya kay Doc Anna ngayon sa #ShareKoLang!
Transcript
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00:43 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
01:12 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
01:34 Hi, Poe.
01:35 I look forward.
01:36 Thank you for having me.
01:37 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
01:40 I think at such a momentous moment in your athletic career,
01:45 so many things are happening.
01:47 You are the first Filipino athlete
01:49 to qualify for the 2024 Olympics.
01:52 And you have just--
01:54 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
01:55 You have taken over one spot to become the number two poll
02:00 voter in the world.
02:02 And you have been really shining through and through.
02:06 So how are you now, right now, in this particular point
02:10 in your athletic career?
02:12 I think I'm doing OK.
02:15 So-so.
02:16 We're at a median.
02:17 We're hitting consistent marks.
02:19 But I still believe I can be better.
02:23 But overall, I'm very proud and very happy
02:26 of what I'm achieving.
02:28 Now, [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] I think it's very public knowledge
02:32 at this point, that there was a point in your career
02:35 that [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
02:40 And there is really, especially, particularly people
02:45 who were supposed to support you, really actively
02:49 kind of made things very difficult.
02:52 But I remember seeing one of your interviews saying,
02:55 I just want to get back to training.
02:57 Like, what was going on?
02:59 How was that experience?
03:00 How do you make sense of what happened?
03:04 It doesn't make any sense.
03:06 There are things in this world that just
03:08 doesn't make any sense.
03:09 And there are things that happens for no reason at all.
03:12 And I think I understood that at such an early age as well.
03:16 And I'm very blessed that I'm able to walk out of it alive
03:21 and I'm able to continue what I love and do everything
03:25 and consider it as an experience.
03:28 I think sport in itself is already tough.
03:31 Let's not make it more difficult.
03:33 And I think there's no other career path that you
03:36 get tested every single week to understand in which level
03:42 are you performing.
03:43 In my perspective, I would not wish that on the worst enemy.
03:46 Those days were terrible.
03:49 They're-- it's one of those times that you just
03:56 don't want to--
03:58 you don't even want to live again.
04:01 You don't want people to live through it.
04:03 What I was saying is it should never happen to anyone.
04:06 And I don't think there's space for that in any aspect
04:11 or any venture of life that we take.
04:14 Like that's just unacceptable.
04:17 So we asked, we asked our viewers,
04:24 what do they do when they're faced with bashers,
04:29 haters, right?
04:31 Like all these things.
04:32 Some people say, just be a dead man instead of a fighter.
04:36 So that's the theme.
04:37 Just be a dead man, ignore it, ignore it.
04:39 There are other people whose themes were on,
04:43 if you need to fight.
04:45 But sometimes, when it's too much, you need to fight.
04:51 So it seems to be like dead man or fight, right?
04:54 And I'm sure in your experience,
04:58 you've been thinking about what would you say?
05:00 Is it dead man or fight?
05:01 Or something in between or something beyond that?
05:05 I think it's a question that very--
05:08 it's a very individual question.
05:13 Is it worth fighting for?
05:15 Is it worth battling for?
05:17 Is it worth your time?
05:19 And I think if it's a personal thing that's happening,
05:22 you're getting bashed online.
05:25 You know yourself more than anyone.
05:27 Is this something I should be bashing?
05:29 It's not even if I'm going to bash someone.
05:33 I mean, it's a very--
05:38 I think a very individual question.
05:40 And I think each and everyone has their own limits
05:44 and boundaries and understanding and processes.
05:48 It's like a one-hand--
05:50 it's like a cost-benefit.
05:51 Like, okay, what's the cost if you're a dead man?
05:54 What's the benefit if you're a dead man?
05:56 For example, can you afford to ignore it?
05:59 It's not just mere online comments and trolling that's happening to you.
06:04 It was like--
06:08 mechanisms were happening to prevent you--
06:11 happened that prevented you from competing.
06:15 So, could you afford--
06:17 In a way, usually, that's the advice of the older generation.
06:22 Just ignore it. Don't troll it.
06:24 And sometimes, they forget.
06:26 Wait, but in a way, it's also a privilege that they can be a dead man
06:30 because it means those words ultimately won't affect--
06:33 those comments, those negative comments, those attempts
06:36 won't ultimately affect your life.
06:38 That's why you can afford to ignore it.
06:40 And then there are times, like you said,
06:42 it's worth fighting for because it's your life,
06:44 it's your values, it's what you stand for.
06:48 Then, if you need to fight,
06:53 if that's what you need to do and it's worth it,
06:57 then do it.
07:00 There's so much preparation up ahead for you.
07:04 And in a way, all this spotlight recently,
07:08 all these sort of placements, these achievements,
07:11 does it put a lot of pressure on you, Death?
07:14 There's a big target at my back.
07:17 And I just--before I went to bed, I just said, "Own it."
07:21 Like, I need to own it because, I mean,
07:24 there's a lot of people have told me,
07:26 there's always things that could overwhelm me,
07:28 but pressure is a privilege.
07:30 I do believe that, and I stand by that quote of Billie Jean King
07:36 because there's pressure when you're about to do something historic,
07:40 when you're expected to do something,
07:44 which I think is a good thing
07:46 because you're not going to be expected to do something
07:48 if you're not--have given reason for, you know,
07:53 the people to actually expect it.
07:55 And that's what motivates me to push to the limits.
07:58 So I'm happy and I'm grateful that I have pressure
08:02 to actually do something historic.
08:04 So, sinasabi natin 'di ba, pag isa sports and athleticism,
08:09 a big part of that is really how to deal with pressure.
08:13 And it's so interesting, actually.
08:15 If you can walk me through it, EJ,
08:17 kasi 'di ba, poll voting, when I watch it,
08:20 as a very lay person, no, it feels like, okay,
08:25 at least you're really ultimately trying to beat yourself.
08:30 You can't stop other people from jumping higher, et cetera.
08:36 And yet at the same time, sabi mo nga, like in Thailand,
08:39 nafeeling mo na parang, okay, there's a target on my back,
08:42 everyone's out to beat you.
08:45 Paano nakaka-apekto pa rin ang mga ibang tao,
08:48 mga rivals, sa 'yong performance?
08:52 I think they can affect you in a certain way if you let it.
08:58 But--so what I mean, there's a target on my back.
09:02 I'm the Asian record holder.
09:04 I'm the highest rank in that field going in Thailand.
09:07 And I knew that everybody wants to win.
09:09 You know, I do have respect to everyone on the field.
09:13 That's why I understand.
09:15 Like, I've been there and I understand that
09:18 when you step on that field, you're not playing around.
09:22 You're there.
09:23 It might seem like a friendly competition,
09:26 that we're not against each other,
09:27 but at the end of the day, there's only one gold medal.
09:30 Everybody wants that.
09:31 That's what I mean.
09:33 That's what I mean when I said there's a target on my back,
09:36 because everybody thinks that to get that gold,
09:39 they need to beat me.
09:41 That's how I felt, and I felt that it was a bit heavy.
09:46 But at the same time, I just said, you know,
09:49 I need to own this.
09:50 My thought process is that is--
09:53 there's a reason why I'm world number two.
09:56 There's a reason why I'm the Asian record holder.
09:59 There's a reason why there's this target on my back,
10:01 because I'm expected of greatness.
10:04 I'm expected to jump high.
10:07 Why not fulfill that?
10:09 Why shy and cower away from that?
10:14 Like, it is facts.
10:15 Like, there's a reason why that is happening,
10:18 and I think that's where all of these mental toughness
10:23 and where these people that I call them championship performers
10:28 come about, because it doesn't matter what you do.
10:32 You can perform either way.
10:34 And I would want to believe that I'm one of those people as well.
10:39 Now, before we get into it,
10:41 maybe a lot of Filipinos are not familiar with poll voting,
10:48 which is a little sad.
10:50 So I'm just wondering, how did you encounter poll voting
10:55 of all the sports, of all the type of games and sports
11:00 that you can do, how did it become poll voting?
11:05 Finally, my dad was a poll voter.
11:08 That was the key gateway for me to be a poll voter.
11:13 There's no secret about it.
11:15 He was the one who started my journey in this sport
11:18 that I still love.
11:20 It's a totally different, how do you say,
11:27 way of getting into sport.
11:29 It's not like basketball that's very accessible.
11:32 It's not like boxing that is very popular.
11:36 So it was something that was introduced to me by my parents,
11:40 by my dad at such an early age, the age of five or six.
11:45 So it was something that I--it was my playground growing up.
11:50 Like the stadium, the track, it was my playground.
11:53 And that's pretty much how I got into it.
11:56 And it just developed into certain different--
12:01 how do you say this?
12:03 A certain different passion.
12:05 It might be a passion, it might be a ticket for something,
12:08 it might have been like--the motivation to continue
12:11 has been consistently changing.
12:15 How was it like as a kid?
12:17 Have you thought that you will be one of the top poll voters
12:21 in the world?
12:22 Growing up, it was just for fun.
12:24 When I went to elementary school, when I started to actually
12:27 have competitions, there was no poll vote.
12:30 That's where I actually moved out--not moved out,
12:34 I still do poll voting, but I did hurdling.
12:37 So that kind of sidetracked my passion because it was not
12:41 something that was accessible for my age group.
12:44 Then high school came in, and the first two years,
12:48 I started to do poll voting.
12:50 I was not good, but I was still doing hurdling.
12:53 But my passion for poll vote was there because I see my dad,
12:56 you know, it's--but there's also like--it's a double-edged sword.
13:00 My dad was known in the country as one of the best who have
13:04 ever done it in Philippines, and it was a big shoe to fill.
13:08 The good thing, or one of the biggest thing that pushed me
13:12 to continue was I saw it as a ticket for me to get
13:16 better education.
13:17 That's why I chose poll voting, to focus more on it
13:20 than hurdling.
13:22 And then so on and so forth.
13:25 The decision to choose poll voting has always, yeah,
13:29 consistently changed.
13:31 Like, the motivation to continue has always been
13:35 progressively changing.
13:37 The fact that your dad at the time was the most known poll
13:43 voter in the Philippines, that's a different type of pressure
13:46 din naman, right?
13:48 At what point, in a way, did it parang transition na it was
13:54 the dream of your dad, and you wanted to fulfill it for your
13:57 dad, to where, "Okay, this is EJ's dream.
13:59 This is really mine.
14:01 It's not exactly the same as my dad's."
14:03 It's probably in 2017.
14:07 2017, I tore my ACL.
14:09 It was supposed to be a career-ending injury.
14:12 It was done.
14:13 That was tough because that was a decision for me to make,
14:16 and it was pretty much in the two decision is continue poll
14:23 voting and try to do what you can after a supposed to be
14:29 career-ending injury, or just finish your studies and live a
14:34 life.
14:36 And that was when I understood how much I love the sport,
14:41 and that's how much it has given me, how much it has made me
14:45 the man I am now, and how much it meant to me.
14:49 And I knew I wanted to give it a shot.
14:53 I knew at that time that this was mine.
14:56 I wanted to give it a shot.
14:58 I wanted to be an Olympian.
15:00 I wanted to go to Olympics.
15:03 I wanted to experience that in my life.
15:05 I don't know what are the odds.
15:08 The odds of me doing that at that time might not be high, but
15:13 I remember my dad was pushing me to, or my parents was pushing
15:19 me to take the more secure path, which I understand, which makes
15:24 a lot of sense, and I would probably do the same thing in
15:27 their shoes.
15:28 But it was at that time that I needed to own up and really
15:35 understand what I want, and that's where I think poll voting
15:41 became mine.
15:42 This dream that I'm living, this is mine.
15:45 This is what I want.
15:47 This is what drives me.
15:49 This is what motivates me.
15:51 But of course, I always consider myself as a realist.
15:55 I gave a timeline.
15:57 I'm not just, oh, I'm going to put all of my life to this.
16:00 I said, give me until 2020, until Tokyo Olympics.
16:04 If I don't make Tokyo, if I don't qualify for Olympics, giving
16:09 everything that I've got, then that's a sign for me to let it go.
16:15 A lot of things have happened after that moment in time, but
16:18 if there's a question where the dream became mine, it's in 2017.
16:23 Think about what you've achieved in 2020 and even more.
16:27 You're coming into the 2024 Olympics with even more, right?
16:31 Even more momentum and even more under your belt.
16:35 So good job for standing up for yourself and being a little stubborn.
16:41 And in a way, hopefully not in the form of an injury, but sometimes
16:44 you really need, you really need to step back and really reflect.
16:49 Like you said, existential.
16:50 Is this what I want?
16:51 Is this what I want to be?
16:53 Do I even want to do this?
16:54 Because it's not easy, Kapusa, viewers, if you're not an athlete,
16:58 and I'm not an athlete, but I've talked to some athletes, and
17:01 it's not an easy lifestyle, right?
17:03 It's not an easy lifestyle.
17:05 I'm sure there are things you probably missed out on growing up.
17:09 I missed a lot.
17:10 I mean, I didn't go to prom.
17:13 I missed prom and I missed my graduation because I had a meet to go to.
17:18 Earlier, you said you're thankful that you made it through and you're here now
17:22 and you're able to continue and do the sport that you love.
17:27 And at that time, that was kind of, that was a risk.
17:31 Because honestly, it would have been so, kind of like, I hate this.
17:35 Let's just get somewhere else.
17:37 And yet you're like, no, this is important.
17:40 I want to represent, and this is my right to represent.
17:45 I can only imagine all the offers, all the opportunities you have to do,
17:52 you know, to get that maybe better support or more resources and things like that.
17:57 And yet you're still Team Philippines.
18:00 You're still on the Philippine team.
18:02 As an average Filipino, honestly, that means so much.
18:06 That really means so much because, as we say, sometimes,
18:09 not just in the world of sports, sometimes it's hard to love.
18:14 It's hard to love the Philippines, right?
18:16 Like, and so I think that's a very Filipino thing.
18:19 We love it in spite of itself.
18:21 We understand how difficult it is.
18:24 And I mean, I think for me, that decision was difficult,
18:28 but it was as clear as day.
18:30 It was as clear as day because if you look back on how I grew up,
18:35 what honed me to become who I am at that certain point in time,
18:39 being a Filipino took a lot.
18:41 Like, I would not have been, at that time, world number five
18:45 if I was not born in Tondo, if I was not raised in such a tough neighborhood,
18:49 if I did not have to get into pole vaulting,
18:54 to find my own way to get a better education,
18:58 if I didn't need to go through everything that I need to go through
19:01 to be where I'm at, remove being a Filipino there,
19:05 that's an integral part of all that journey that I took.
19:09 And me just looking back at it, it might be my arrogant self,
19:14 but I do enjoy and I took pride in and glory seeing our flag
19:20 where it was not meant to be there.
19:24 It was not meant to be dominated by an Asian.
19:29 It's a European-dominated event to be dominated by such a different nation.
19:36 That's a difference. That's a satisfaction.
19:40 That might just be the dark side of me,
19:42 but I mean, I take pride into that. I enjoy every bit of it.
19:47 Seeing the Philippine flag and the podium finishes where it was not meant to be there.
19:52 That's a different sense of pride and maybe my ego as well.
19:56 So I've had my reasons and I do love the country.
20:01 I am greatly in depth to it. This is why I chose to fight for it.
20:10 In a way, did that make you even more focused now, more than ever?
20:16 All these opportunities, all these competitions, all these meets,
20:21 the 2024 Olympics, did it make you more focused?
20:27 Or it was like, oh man, if that didn't happen,
20:31 I could have actually just maybe trained.
20:33 Yeah, my psychologist and I have talked about that.
20:37 There's nothing productive in thinking about what could have.
20:40 There's only the odds that you have now and what are you going to do with those odds?
20:45 And I mean, it's not a question.
20:49 It was painful for me to miss the world Endurance Championship.
20:52 I was robbed. I felt robbed. I still believe I got robbed.
20:56 In a career of a track athlete, you get to do two, maximum of three,
21:00 and maybe get one when you're physically at your prime.
21:05 And I was robbed of that.
21:07 And I don't think anyone should ever experience or go through that.
21:11 And I think when you qualify to a certain degree, to certain marks,
21:15 you should be allowed to compete because it's a championship.
21:20 It's definitely the culmination of all the things that you've done.
21:25 And I felt that that was taken away from me.
21:28 And it was painful.
21:32 But having that, I learned to appreciate and understand the privilege that I currently am in.
21:40 And I understood that nothing in this life is certain.
21:47 It doesn't matter if it's a measurable sport.
21:50 Things happen and things could happen with or without your control.
21:56 And all you can do is control the odds that you have in play and do the best that you can.
22:01 And the course takes its course.
22:05 For our Kapusya, our viewers, they may not be pole vaulters, they may not be athletes.
22:13 Maybe they're going through a very tough time.
22:16 They're dealing with a lot of bashers, people who are already competing,
22:19 or people who are just actively getting in their way and making them question who they are.
22:27 I think that's the harder thing to take.
22:32 So is there something you can tell them?
22:36 I don't know if I'm the best person to tell them how to face it.
22:41 Because I truly believe it's an individual approach and there's a lot of different ways to approach it.
22:48 Probably, if I could share, it would be an encouraging word.
22:51 I hope that you guys stay strong and stay true to yourself.
22:56 And truly understand your being and think that's your best protection to any of these attacks
23:03 and any of these challenges that you face.
23:05 It's you understanding yourself the best and knowing who you are and what you are as a person.
23:12 That would be enough for you to go through and power through anything that you face.
23:18 Thank you so much, EJ Obiana.
23:21 Oh my goodness. And all praying and wishing for you that, oh my gosh, leading up to 2024.
23:30 And we look forward to openly and full-throttled supporting you.
23:37 Thank you so much.
23:39 Thank you so much, EJ.
23:41 If you have something to talk about, just leave a comment below.
23:46 Or email us at sharekolang@gmailnews.tv
23:50 We're also streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.
23:56 Thanks for tuning in.
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