PARIS (Via PLDT Home)—Fluctuat nec mergitur. Tossed but not sunk.
Ernest John Obiena may not admit it, but he encapsulates that Paris motto perfectly in his oftentimes exhilarating and sometimes painful pole vault journey from obscurity to global superstar.
The 29-year-old pole vaulter has almost seen and experienced it all in his lifetime. He began horribly as a hurdler, then saw his life turn around when he shifted to pole vaulting.
He shattered his knee, played awfully a couple of times, but recovered nicely in as many, while smashing records along the way. He trained under a legend and soared to legit superstar status with endorsements of all kinds – from shoes to credit cards, drinking water to biscuits. At one point, he even fought an entire national sports association.
You’d see him screaming his heart out, hands raised in the air after a mighty leap into the sky. And then in another, crying on national TV for letting an entire nation down.
That was the heartbreaking scene after Obiena improved on his Tokyo Olympics’ finish of 11th three years ago, but still fell off the podium in the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Stade de France on Monday.
And so Obiena is again at a crossroads, at least on his plans as an Olympic athlete.
“I think I’ve done a lot in this sport, but coming in fourth doesn’t make it nice, but we’ll see how it goes. It’s not a no, but we’ll see. I’m not saying no, I’m not saying yes. I’m not committing to anything, I’m not canceling anything. I need time to process a little bit of this and absorb everything,” he said.
But as an ambassador of the sport? You can’t shake Obiena off that path.
“I’m sure I need to go back to the Philippines because we raised enough funds to donate one kit, one set of kit with goals and standards (for kids). We’re deciding where we’re going to do it,” said Obiena, who is also planning to host a pole vault tournament in the Philippines on September 20.
“It’s already on the calendar of World Athletics. Exhibition? It’s not an exhibition. It’s an official competition. It’s a challenging level tour. The surface is going to be the same, what we use here in Paris,” added Obiena of the planned all-star tourney featuring the likes of Germany’s Oleg Zernikel, China’s Huang Bokai, and Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis, who edged him from the bronze in Paris.
“We’ll try to invite everyone. Maybe Ersu (Sasma of Turkey). I’ll try to get, you know, the Olympic finalists and have a really good competition in the Philippines,” said Obiena.
Asia’s no. 1 pole vaulter ended his talks with scribes with a heartfelt message to his supporters,
“Thank you so much for all the support and love you’ve given. And I think that makes the whole journey from Tokyo to today really worthwhile. I’ve been through a lot. Sometimes I feel I don’t deserve this, especially today. In short, it’s the reality of sport. Everyone who’s cheering me on and giving me all these very positive emotions. I do apologize for coming short,” said Obiena. “Such is life and such is sport.”
It is. And so cry it out, man. Rest, recover, and rise. You will be tossed around by life, but you will never be sunk.
Fluctuat nec mergitur.
