TALES OF THE CITY
Against all odds, woman powerlifter rises to the top
By Beverly T. Natividad
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:07:00 08/24/2008
MANILA, Philippines—She may not be the best powerlifter in the world yet, but Adeline Dumapong definitely deserves a gold medal for her dogged determination to excel and live as normally as possible in the sport we call life.
Dumapong, 34, is flying out to Beijing next month, one of three members of a team that will compete in the World Paralympics.
In 2000, she won the bronze in the Sydney Games, snagging the first Paralympic medal for the Philippines.
But whether or not she gets a gold medal in the Beijing Games this year, she has already proven herself to be a winner.
Dumapong has been lifting weights for 12 years, although she has been confined to a wheelchair since she was 6 years old.
At age 3, she lost the use of her legs after she was stricken with poliomyelitis.
Her condition, however, still did not stop her from dabbling in different types of sports—from basketball for the differently-abled to wheel-a-thons, (wheelchair race) to swimming.
It was in bench press, however, where she found her place.
“It gives meaning to my extra large size,” Dumapong, a native of Kiangan, Ifugao, said with a laugh.
According to her, she got into the sport on a friend’s suggestion. At that time, she said, she had gained a lot of weight after she stopped using her crutches.
Powerlifting, she noted, seemed suited for her. Being restricted to a wheelchair for most of her life, her upper body strength was more developed compared to other athletes.
After winning the bronze medal in Sydney, Dumapong bagged a gold in the 2003 Asean Para in Vietnam. She won another gold medal two years later in the Asean Para Games held in Manila.
Now ranked 15th in the world, Dumapong’s heaviest lift on record is pegged at 120 kilos, which she set at the Asian Bench Press Open, even besting several abled athletes.
When she was younger, Dumapong said she enjoyed participating in competitions because of the chance to travel and make new friends. But as she matured as an athlete, she has come to realize that it was more important to bring honor to the country in spite of her disability.
“That is really something that even people who can walk can’t do. To be able to have the chance to give back something to your country is a privilege for me. That I have a chance to do it even if I have a disability really makes me happy,” she said.
Like other Filipino athletes, Dumapong said she has experienced the hardships some go through like making do with the limited funding coming from the government while being pitted against well-funded sportsmen from other countries.
“I have competed in other countries where I did not have a uniform or did not receive any allowance. I know the difference because now, we get funding from the PSC (Philippine Sports Commission). I hope that little by little, the situation of athletes will improve,” she added.
Currently working part-time for the Philippine Sports Association for the Differently Abled (Philspada), Dumapong, who was also one of the finalists in this year’s Modess “Aim High Pinay” search for top women achievers, said she has been helping the agency lobby for higher financial support for athletes like her.
She noted that while “normal” Filipino athletes are hard-pressed for funding, differently abled athletes are even more so.
While the government, with the help of generous donors, has put up a pot for Olympic-bound athletes in order to motivate them to win the country’s first gold medal, no one has set aside a similar incentive package for athletes participating in the Paralympics.
“We do get some support from the PSC but it could be better. That’s why Philspada is currently lobbying Congress to at least give the differently abled athletes the equal amount of support given to regular athletes,” said Dumapong.
It is important for the government to realize that athletes like her, though differently abled, are struggling alongside normal athletes to give honor to the country, she added.
Dumapong shared with the Inquirer that she has always been fascinated by the fact that the word Paralympics was not taken from the word “paraplegic” but was actually based on the Greek word “para” which means “alongside.”
This, she said, should inspire other differently abled athletes to march side by side with them in winning medals for the country and help raise public awareness of the need to recognize their contribution to Philippine sports.
“There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done to let Filipinos know that there are also athletes with disabilities who also represent the Philippines and win medals for the country. These athletes deserve the same recognition,” said Dumapong.
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