Filipino Olympian profile: Shooter Valdez realizes family’s Olympic aspirations

Ask any serious athlete and often they would open up about dreaming to compete in the Olympics, possibly winning a medal as well, in the greatest sports show on Earth held once every 4 years.

Watch more on iWantTFC The significance of the shooting venue inside the headquarters of the Japan Eastern Army won’t be lost on Valdez, who, ironically, had given up on his Olympic aspirations, enlisted in the Philippine Army and had begun his boot camp at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija in mid-June of this year.

“Ma’am Irene texted me late Friday to inform me that I qualified and if I was ready to compete in the Olympics. Of course, who was I to turn it down?” said Valdez of the opportunity of competing for flag and country in the quadrennial meet. It was no mean accomplishment for the shooter, the youngest national athlete at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games at 14, crisscrossing the globe from 2018 to June 2021 in trying to accumulate enough MQS scores to be eligible to compete in the Tokyo Olympics.

With no strings attached, there were instances when Padilla, now a successful businessman, would come to the last-minute rescue of the Valdezes so they could proceed abroad, according to the athlete. The MQS for the men’s 10-meter air rifle event is 595.0 points, and Valdez successfully exceeded it six times over the qualifying period, beginning with a score of 618.6 points to place 17th in the Asian Games in Jakarta in August 2018.

“Because I focused on my fitness I was able to exceed the MQS six times and even shot 626 points in actual competition. I have also scored 630 several times in practice,” Valdez stressed. To the uninitiated, the 10-meter air rifle shooting competition is a rigorously demanding event requiring a balance of strength, endurance, balance, skill and precision from the competitor.

Italian Nicola Cipriani ruled the men’s 10-meter air rifle event in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, first topping the qualifying round with a score of 630.1 points, a new Olympic record, before sealing the gold with a score of 206.1 points in the finals.

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