Comeback chronicles of PH sports: Redemption, more than a word, is a war cry

The year 2024 in Philippine sports has been a tale of victories earned, setbacks overcome, and battles still being waged.

With an expanding horizon of sports capturing the nation’s attention, it has been a season of champions reclaiming their titles, underdogs rising to the occasion, and legacies being rewritten.

Some Filipino athletes have already embraced their redemption, while others are still in the thick of it, and for a few, the journey is just beginning—proof that redemption is a process, not a moment. 

Amidst torrential controversies raining down against them, Alas Pilipinas finally redeemed its reputation as they wrapped their year-ender bulletin with stunning golden bronze achievements from the past international leagues.

After a five-year hiatus, the newly appointed Italian head coach for the men’s team, Angiolino Frigoni, silenced left and right critics, leading the Philippine volleyball team to its second consecutive SEA VLeague medal in his very first season. 

Meanwhile, the women’s division, headed by coach Jorge De Brito, overcame a challenging journey, securing a long-awaited victory over Australia to win the 2024 AVC Challenger Cup bronze after heartbreaking loss in 2023 that marked a huge comeback, propelling the team from 66th to 58th in the global ranking and ending a 63-year wait for glory.

Playing their cards well and acing the year with outstanding wins, Alas Pilipinas gleaming and glittering bronze success, finally avenged its name with a bigger hope of success in the future.

Marred by multiple managerial changes and an unsteady program in the past few years that have left an agonizing pain in the hearts of fans, the Philippine men’s football team may have finally seen the onset of its long-due resurgence.

Miracles occur once in a blue moon for the Philippines with the last one in Hanoi back in 2010. It seems that lady luck came back as they stunned Indonesia in front of their home crowd, 1-nil, to book their place in the semis of AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup for the first time since 2018.

The Pinoy booters then decided it was not enough as they followed it up with a historic 2-1 victory against Thailand, the reigning ASEAN champions that they have finally beaten after over five decades.

This against-all-odds campaign of the PMNFT may have just become the stepping stone in achieving greater heights for a new breed of ‘Azkals’ who are willing to fight for the flag.

It took three chances for the Philippines to rule the Asian floorball.

The Philippine Men’s National Floorball team debuted in the 2020 World Championship as substitutes and got off to a flying start after beating Singapore and United States in the tournament. Putting up a valiant effort, that push wasn’t enough for the lads to grab a lone Asian slot in the World Games against continental powerhouse Thailand.

Two years later, the national squad re-entered the World Championship but failed to overtake fellow regional teams Australia and Thailand, settling for 15th place.

After absorbing multiple setbacks, the Philippines remained unfazed in this year’s IFF World Championship held in Sweden. Despite falling to eventual group winners Estonia, the Philippines successfully flipped the odds after defeating Canada in a nail-biting 4-3 match. 

This win led them to a historic playoff appearance and a ticket to the 2025 Chengdu World Games. For the Philippine team, every chance is a set-up for bigger achievements.

For the fourth consecutive year, the UP Fighting Maroons have been in the finals and gone on to win Game 1 and lose Game 2, but the question remains, will they lose a third consecutive Game 3? 

With the stage for Game 3 set, UP showed up firing on all cylinders. As they put all their trust in head coach Goldwin Monteverde’s laid-out system and game plan, the Fighting Maroons with all their might, outlasted a gritty DLSU run late on the fourth as Francis Lopez sank a game 2 redeeming 3-pointer to ice the game with a minute remaining, and finally proving the naysayers wrong. 

As they reclaimed their crown and dethroned the reigning champions, they have avenged their Season 86 defeat against the DLSU Green Archers. Two seasons after ending their 36-year UAAP title drought, the UP Fighting Maroons claimed their 2nd UAAP title in four years behind four consecutive finals appearances, proving that their Season 84 win was just a taste of what is to come.

Eight years of waiting for a legit chance for a championship wasn't an easy task, especially after being disposed of by the same team in your four years of PBA Finals run. This time, the Meralco Bolts had enough. 

The year 2016 was a sign of what seemed to be their rise, but they fell short of the crowd-favorite Gin Kings. They had another chance the following year but history repeated itself. 

They say that third time's a charm, but not for the Bolts as they still couldn't clamp for that elusive first championship in their 2019 Finals run. Well you guessed it, 2021 wasn't still the year for Meralco — being overpowered by yet again the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel. 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2021 were all the battle scars that the Bolts had, but those experiences paved an avenue to finally snare their first-ever title.

Meanwhile, the game itself was nothing short of a drama, especially in the waning moments of the tussle with both squads trading blows with each other. Particularly when the floundering Chris Newsome had other plans for the day, sinking a well-contested baseline jumper for the win.

The years of heart-breaking finals losses were over for Meralco, and all those eight years are all worth the wait.

EJ Obiena’s redemption is a story still being written.

Once ranked World No. 2, Filipino pole vaulter Obiena dropped to No. 3 after a heartbreaking fourth-place finish in the Paris Olympics. Yet his progress is clear, rising from 11th in Tokyo to just shy of the podium in Paris.

Despite battling physical setbacks and falling short of the podium, Obiena turned his sights on rebuilding, not just for himself, but for the future of Philippine pole vaulting.

The Asian Games champion and record holder recently partnered with Milo for the "Six Meter Initiative" to bring pole vault clinics to grassroots athletes. In October 2023, he also joined Katapult Digital for the "Katapulting an Athlete’s Dream" campaign, aimed at building pole vault training facilities nationwide.

For Obiena, redemption means more than reclaiming his place at the top—it’s about lifting others to new heights and proving that even in heartbreak, there is purpose.

Legacies of legends like Efren “Bata” Reyes are not just written in the history books, but continue to ignite the fire within Filipino pool players. 

Old age never bothered the 70-year-old Reyes proved he still has an ace up his sleeves after leading the underdog Team Asia as team captain to the first-ever Reyes cup, an international tournament that pays homage to his legacy. 

This feat sends out a strong message that he’s not done yet and still the “Magician” he always is. The legend of Reyes also continues to inspire other pool players in showcasing to the world the real deal in Philippine billiards as Rubilen Amit, Carlo Biado, and Jefrey Roda made historic championships in respective international competitions.

Reyes’ magic touch may fade due to age but has left a mark on history and in every pool players’ dream.

Doubts still linger but the ONIC magic still delivers as they extend PH’s reign on top of the M-series to five years.

Despite overhauling the bloodthirsty battlefield with the addition of the Swiss Stage, the PH-INDO rivalry remained unfazed, but their storyline changed as Team Liquid ID narrated the end of a PH-PH championship, closing Aurora PH's chapter to a 12th-place finish. 

This upset woke up the hungry hedgehogs as the heir to the throne, spoiling Indonesia's chance to relieve a once distant dream of ending the Philippines' reign in the M-world championships.

Since rebuilding the Fnatic ONIC PH roster, it was deemed difficult to repeat the previous staple “ONIC time” identity in tense situations; especially when the big lights lit up the battlefield. However, they proved their worth and rewritten their destiny as they pummeled the persistent TLID, 4-1, to seal their reputation as the “Super Family” of the MLBB. 

Bannered by the previously uncrowned king, Grant Duane "Kelra" Pillas, the gold standard spearheaded the chivalry in yellow as he became the only player to ever win Finals MVP in three major events — MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2021, MPL-PH Season 16 and M6 World Championship. 

Years of heartbroken ‘Puso’ battlecry never went in vain as Gilas Pilipinas made huge waves that rippled on the international stage this year, proving that the team no longer achieved moral victories and instead, celebrated actual hard-earned wins.

Momentum from their previous gold medal finish last year in the Asian Games gave Gilas the boost they needed this 2024 with their wins against Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong. That run continued during the 2024 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament. Gilas made an improbable shocker, by defeating the host and now-former sixth ranked team in the world, Latvia. 

Despite missing the slot after bowing to Brazil, Gilas went out of the tournament on a high note, and carried it to the second window of the Asia Cup Qualifiers by defeating New Zealand for the first time ever and Hong Kong, to finish the second window going undefeated and also securing that outright ticket to the Asia Cup.

Just when it seemed like his Olympic glory was out of reach, Carlos Yulo flipped the script and delivered not one but two gold medals. 

The Filipino wunderkind made his Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo summer games with high hopes of becoming the First Filipino to win an artistic gymnastics Olympic gold medal. But things did not happen in the way that he expected. 

He struggled in his performance in the qualifying round of his pet event in the floor exercise and finished his first Olympic run empty handed.

Fast forward to Paris 2024, the Filipino gymnast bounced back where he made history by winning two gold medals. He reigned in the men's floor exercise after registering a total score of 15.000, which made him the first Filipino male to win an Olympic gold medal. 

On the next day, Yulo delivered once again in the vault event where he scored 15.116 to claim his second gold medal that cemented his name as one of the greatest of all time Filipino Olympian.

Yulo’s triumph only proves that redemption isn’t just a comeback—it’s a revolution.