Press "Enter" to skip to content

Coo | Chasing the Olympic dream for flag

 

“I AM proud to be racing for the Philippines. It has been a dream” said the 19-year-old BMX racer Patrick Coo who will try to book an Olympic ticket this year as he competes at the UCI BMX World Cup 2021 – a Tokyo Olympic Qualification tournament in Bogota, Colombia from May 29-30.

The teenage cyclist is born and raised in Bellflower, California. He started racing at 6 and will try to qualify in the pinnacle of most sports next to London Olympian Daniel Caluag which represented the country in 2012.

“Danny has always been a great man and inspiration to me. He is my biggest motivation. After watching him in the 2012 Olympics, it something that I also want to do. Put our country on the map.” shared Coo.

“He always told me to ride for fun and raise my heart out and that’s all that matters,” Coo added.

In 2019, Coo won the title in the Asian Juniors BMX Championship in Malaysia and became part of the Philippine Cycling team last year.

“We have a lot of talented Filipino cyclists and one of them is our teenage BMX cyclist Patrick Coo. We are counting on him,” said PSC Chairman William ‘Butch’ Ramirez. PSC gave almost Php 1.2 million financial assistance for Coo’s campaign in Colombia.

The sports governing body also approved additional funding of Php 321,298 thousand pesos which covers the airfare, accommodation, allowance, visa fee, insurance, COVID swab test, and entry fee of Coo’s entourage along with national coaches Ednalyn Hualda and Frederick Farr.

“Patrick has a lot of potential, not only for this year but in the next Olympic cycle in Paris, France,” added Ramirez.

Coo maybe the youngest in the Philippine team who aspire to become an Olympian, but he knows from deep within that this is what he really wanted ever since he started in the sport – to raise the flag and make the country proud.

“Dreams don’t work unless you work for it. We’re chasing the dream right now and the dream is the goal. I’ll do my best and hopefully, I’ll make it to qualify in Tokyo Olympics.” exclaimed Coo.

Author

Powered By ICTC/DRS