It is rare that brothers and siblings are honored and recognized for serving the country as national athletes.
But at the biggest gathering of sports stars feted in the 2024 Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Awards Night held January 19 at the Centennial Hall of the historic Manila Hotel, two of four Fortaleza brothers stood tall from among the Olympics heroes that represented every batch of those that competed in the world’s grandest sports meet held every four years.
Reynaldo Fortaleza, who is now based in Vancouver, Canada and his older brother Ricardo, now a resident of Sydney, Australia were both honored and given citation not just for representing the Philippine flag but also for their outstanding contribution and huge help in shaping the country become dominant in the sport of boxing.
Ricardo was one of the four famous Fortaleza brothers in the Philippines, that were all famous in the sport of boxing. The four consisted of Ricardo “Ric”, Renato “Rene”, Reynaldo “Rey”and Rogelio “Roger”.
Although Ric was the most successful of the four, Rey, Rene and Roger were also successful boxers. All of them were able to graduate from a bachelor’s degree from the Far Eastern University. It was there where they started their boxing careers through the scholarship provided by a university.
On a nostalgic night marking the centennial of the country’s participation in the Olympics, Ric and Rey along with fellow Filipino Olympians from the past six decades, share the glamour of the country’s celebration of the double gold medal hauled by gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo, who was hailed as the Athlete of the Year.
Little known to many, the Fortaleza four brothers compose the biggest number of Olympians in one family. Bantamweight Ricardo or Ric, the eldest, was remembered to have saved the PHI from gold-medal shutout in the 1970 Bangkok Asian Games, prior to seeing action in Munich 1972 Olympics.
His brother Reynaldo, a flyweight, also fought in the same Games. Rene went on to serve as referee/judge in Barcelona 1992 where PHI notched its seventh Olympic medal.
The Fortalezas were also the fourth pair of siblings to participate in the same edition of the Olympics in the same sport. The Padilla brothers own the distinction of being the first that happened during 1932 Los Angeles Olympics boxing. Following them were the Fajardo brothers in London 1948 in basketball. Third were sister-brother tandem of the Lozadas in Melbourne 1956.
In Montreal 1976, Reynaldo Fortaleza reached the quarterfinals—one victory away from a bronze.
Though he did not graduate to the Olympic level boxing like his three brothers, Rogelio Fortaleza, silver medalist in the 1977 SEA Games and 1979 ASEAN Amateur Boxing Championships, entered Beijing 2008 as referee/judge. He was the first Filipino AIBA 3-star referee-judge and rose to secretary-generalship of the now Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP).
Organized by the Philippine Olympians Association, representatives from each Olympic batch glittered the night with loud cheers and chant from the other awardees.
Previous Olympic teams and their representatives are Mildred Canete (1964 Tokyo); Ernesto Bren and Jaime Mariano (1968 Mexico); Freddie Webb, Marte Samson, Ricardo Fortaleza, and Gerardo Rosario (1972 Munich); Reynaldo Fortaleza (1976 Montreal); Christine Jacob-Sandejas (1984 Los Angeles); Akiko Thomson Guevara, Stephen Fernandez, Edgardo Maerina, Benjamin McMurray, Gregorio Colonia, and Manuel Monsour del Rosario (1988 Seoul); and Roel Velasco, Isidro Vicera, Juan Miguel Torres, Jaime Recio, Ed Lasquete, Walter Torres, and Beatriz Lucero (1992 Barcelona).
Representing the 1996 Atlanta batch are Mansueto Velasco Jr., Elias Recaido and Amparo Lim; Jenny Guerrero, Roberto Cruz, Donald Geisler, Jasmin Strachan Simpao, Benjamin Tolentino and Marie Antoinette Leviste for 2000 Sydney; Raphael Matthew Chua and Jethro Dionisio for 2004 Athens; and Eric Ang, and Marestella Torres Sunang for 2008 Beijing.
The rest are Jessie Lacuna, Rene Herrera, Jasmine Alkhaldi (2012 London); Kirstie Elaine Alora, Mary Joy Tabal, Charly Suarez and Rogen Ladon (2016 Rio De Janeiro); and Cris Marasigan Niervaez and Kurt Barbosa (2020 Tokyo).
The 2024 Paris Olympians, including EJ Obiena, Lauren Hoffman, Carlo Paalam, Eumir Marcial and Bianca Pagdanganan, will take the spotlight alongside Paralympians Jerrold Mangliwan, Ernie Gawilan and Angel Otom.
Athlete of the Year honors will go to gymnastics sensation Carlos Yulo for his double-gold performance in Paris while boxing icons Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas headline the major awardees.
Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, the country’s first Olympic gold medalist, was enshrined in the PSA Hall of Fame during the ceremony
