The thrill and agony of watching EJ Obiena chase his Olympic dream

EJ was in tears when he apologized to the nation after placing 4th. Filipinos responded with love and a collective hug, telling him: “We are so proud of you, EJ!” We really are.

In the collected stories that someone, somewhere, will write about pole vaulter EJ Obiena sometime in the future, there will be a whole chapter dedicated to this summer evening just outside Paris.

It might begin with the weather: 29oC, 0% precipitation, 34% humidity, 6km/h wind, and a degraded air quality.

Or it might begin with the date and location: August 5, 2024, the 10th day of the Paris Olympics at Stade de France in the suburbs of Saint-Denis. Apart from the 80,000-capacity stadium built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, this commune was first known for its royal necropolis, where 43 French kings and 32 queens are buried in the abbey of Saint-Denis Basilica Cathedral.

EJ Obiena chooses his pole at the qualifying round in Stade de France last Saturday, August 3. Banner photo from Reuters; photo above from Obiena’s Facebook page

Practically speaking, Saint-Denis is the heart of French history. “Le roi est mort, vive le roi!” they would proclaim when the king has died. “The king is dead, long live the king!” to signify the transfer of power from one monarch to the next.

On this summer evening, a kilometer away from the basilica, sporting history is also being made in the pole vault final at the stadium.

Yet there is a second city that’s just as crucial to this story as Saint-Denis, located halfway around the world where it is 1 am on the following day: Manila.

And everyone is awake.

Roller coaster weekend

“I’ve done everything I can. I’m proud of the effort of my team, myself, and everybody that made this possible. But it doesn’t make it less painful.”

On Saturday afternoon my friend Jill messaged me. “How do you feel about EJ Obiena right now?”

“Please tell me he qualified!” I had been out all day and missed the early part of the competition when he missed 5.6m.

Of course he qualified. There was really no doubt in my mind—yet I was anxious. So was Jill. So was my associate editor Mok, and other friends following his journey from Tokyo 2020 to Paris 2024.  

In May, I did an in-depth interview with EJ Obiena via Zoom. EJ was in Formia, Italy where he was training with his coach Vitaly Petrov. The interview was set for 8 pm by his team, then it was moved to 9 pm. He was still in his Kia driving from the track when he dialed in, full of apologies. The interview could have been moved to midnight and no one would have minded.

In Formia, he trained twice a day, four to six hours each session in the stadium that was built to produce Olympic athletes. The following week, he was going to compete twice in Poland. He topped both competitions! In the first week of July, he flew to Paris for another tilt. A week after the Olympics opened the athletics events began.

It feels as if EJ sat still and alone for a long time, perhaps tossing in his head how he could have missed those heights that he routinely made. Without a phone, he couldn’t have known that everyone in the Philippines watching the final was saying, ‘Thank you, EJ,‘ ‘We’re so proud of you,‘ and ‘We love you, EJ.‘

A few hours after EJ’s qualifying round, the men’s gymnastics floor exercise is being held at Bercy Arena in the 12th arrondisement. Two days earlier, Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo placed 12th in the men’s all around. But tonight, the 24-year-old is phenomenal. When he looks up at the scoreboard and realizes he’s won gold, he drops to the floor and cries.

For the first time in the Paris Olympics, our flag is raised and the national anthem plays—and this 4’11” gymnast is standing proudly on the highest podium for all of us.   

Over at Arena Paris Nord, near Charles de Gaulle Airport, boxer Aira Villegas defeats the hometown favorite in the 50kg division. She is booed. She doesn’t care. Her face is a mix of emotions as she raises her bandaged right hand defiantly at the crowd and pulls at the left corner of her singlet where the Philippine flag is stitched.

I burst into tears.  

On Sunday, Nesthy Petecio defeats her Chinese foe in the 57kg division. This courageous woman who battled depression before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has done it again! Both Nesthy and Aira, assured of at least the bronze medal, are going to Roland Garros where the boxing semis and finals are going to be held.

Later that day, Carlos Yulo vaults to his second gold medal. Wait, is this a replay of last night’s event? Is this a dream?

I am a wreck reading reactions and messages on social media for EJ, Carlos, Aira and Nesthy. This is a f*cking good weekend.

The bar falls as ambitions climb

“I am heartbroken that a single failure cost me and cost a nation I so deeply love—the podium,“ Obiena wrote on Instagram.

Stade de France has 18 entrances arranged in alphabetical order. If you google-map the area, you will see them circling the stadium marked by red pins, but there are no letters F, L, Q and five others. You will also see just how huge it is, sitting beside a spaghetti of roads and highways, making the trip from Central Paris less than half an hour.

In the past two days, something comical from the qualification round on Saturday has taken hold of social media and news websites. C’est n’importe quoi (it’s nonsense) but headlines and hours of content feature Anthony Ammirati’s unfortunate jump when the crossbar is dislodged as his crotch brushed against it.

News editors are obviously having fun with a variety of nouns and verbs in their headlines, such as “French athlete loses pole vault event after penis/crotch/manhood/bulge accidentally knocks/clips/moves/dislodges cross bar.”

Then it’s over. EJ Obiena’s campaign at the Paris Olympics ends in 4th place. In this very moment, every Filipino except EJ Obiena knows it’s a remarkable achievement.

Ranked No. 34 in the world, Ammirati had inadvertently and heroically shifted people’s attention from the ugly gender wars gripping the games to his own lovely penis. (Plus, he got a 250k-job offer from a porn site.)

Anyway, on this evening on the 10th day of the Olympics, the pole vault final is simultaneously held with track and field events. At 7 pm, the 12 finalists are introduced, including World No. 1 Armand Duplantis (Sweden), No. 2 EJ Obiena (Philippines), and No. 3 Sam Kendricks (USA). They are all record holders—Obiena for Asia, Kendricks for the US, and Duplantis for the world.

It is 1 am in Manila when the competition begins at 5.5m. Easy-peasy. EJ looks relaxed. Duplantis looks blasé, often expressionless. In contrast, when EJ sees the camera panning, he smiles despite knowing the Olympic ambitions of 115 million Filipinos are on his shoulders. But he is capable of carrying this weight—his gait is sure, his back is straight, and his smile is genuine.

At the second round, at 5.7m, you get attuned to their rituals and runs. The bespectacled Ersu Sasma of Turkey, who is ahead of EJ in rotation, talks to himself. EJ sometimes aligns his pole to the box, putting it in his sights with one eye. Then he takes off—and at 6’2” (and a long pole in his hands) he runs elegantly, his back straight.

Duplantis makes history at 6.25m. It’s an amazing achievement, one that pushes humanity a centimeter higher. Hurray. I finally go to bed at 4 in the morning with a heavy heart.

Duplantis, who sits it out until 5.85m, runs with his shoulders a bit dropped at top speed. Le Monde reported that “at his peak he was running 10 meters per second,” a speed he can sustain. When he lands on the mat, he bounces back on his feet in one motion without using his hands for support. It’s a flex for sure, but it looks weird—like he was a toy that suddenly sprung to life.

Along with other athletes, EJ fails at 5.8m. At 5.85m only 10 out of 12 athletes remain. He makes 5.9m and thumps his chest. But by 5.95, his chances at a medal finish have all but disappeared with Emmanouil Karalis having fewer failures.

On EJ’s last try, Karalis is at the stand facing his coach, his back to EJ—as though he couldn’t bear to see EJ succeed because that would mean he would be fourth; and if EJ failed he would be third. These two athletes are friends. When EJ competed in Bydgoszcz, Poland and cleared 5.97m, Karalis immediately came up to him and hugged him.

Duplantis makes history at 6.25m.

Then it’s over. EJ Obiena’s campaign at the Paris Olympics ends in 4th place. In this very moment, every Filipino except EJ Obiena knows it’s a remarkable achievement since he finished 11th at the Tokyo Olympics.

I only see EJ’s last try on replay because I couldn’t bear to see it live. It’s stupid, I know, but I was so nervous that I left the room. Now it’s only the top three athletes to determine their placing. Duplantis of course takes the gold, Kendricks silver, and Karalis bronze.

Then it’s time for Duplantis to make history. Before he jumps 6.1m, he sits on a bench chatting with Kendricks. Behind them is EJ sitting alone, his back to the camera, his shoulders straight and looking at the packed stands. As Duplantis asks the bar to be raised to 6.25 in an attempt to break his own record, EJ is joined by Chinese pole vaulter Huang Bokai and they begin talking.

It feels as if EJ sat still for a long time, perhaps tossing in his head how he could have missed those heights that he routinely made. Without a phone, he couldn’t have known that everyone in the Philippines who had watched him was posting on social media: “Thank you, EJ,” or “EJ, we’re so proud of you,” “We love you, EJ.”

Duplantis makes history at 6.25m, breaking his own record of 6.24m in Xiamen, China. Tonight is the ninth time in his career that he has broken a world record. He is only 24.

It’s an amazing achievement, one that pushes humanity a centimeter higher. Hurray. I finally go to bed at 4 in the morning with a heavy heart.

Outpouring of support

Obiena finishes in fourth place. Photo from Reuters

In the collected stories that someone, somewhere, will write about pole vaulter EJ Obiena sometime in the future, this part will have its own chapter too.

It might begin with an apology: “I came up short. I’m sorry,” EJ Obiena says in an interview with OneSport. “ (My coach) said it’s not the end of the world, but it feels like the end of the world right now. I’m thankful that I got to the final, but at the same time I’m disappointed. It’s the same height and I missed it by one attempt. One attempt was an Olympic medal.”

Or it might begin when his voice starts to shake: “I promised (in Tokyo) I would do better and I did…but it didn’t really change in my book. I’m really sorry, I apologize for it.”

EJ wipes away his tears with the back of his hand. The interviewer—speaking for all of us—says, “There’s nothing to apologize for, EJ.”  

Like many elite athletes, EJ has been offered several times to compete for other countries. It would have made his life and training easier with funding not hard to come by, but EJ has turned them down every single time, saying he wanted to compete for the Philippines.

On OneSport’s Facebook page, the video has been viewed more than two million times in less than 24 hours, not counting views from news outlets and individuals that shared it. There are more than 4,000 comments and most of them say the same thing: No need to apologize, EJ. You made us proud. You did well. We love you.

EJ posted on his socials a picture of himself at the stadium looking out at the pole vaulters in the middle and, beyond them, the crowds. He thanks everyone who has supported and believed in him. “4th place is painful to say the least; and in sports with three podium places, perhaps 4th is the harshest place to be. I am heartbroken that a single failure cost me and cost a nation I so deeply love—the podium. I apologize for this outcome.”

His love for country is not hyperbole. Like many elite athletes, EJ has been offered several times to compete for other countries. It would have made his life and training easier with funding not hard to come by, but EJ has turned them down every single time, saying he wanted to compete for the Philippines.

“I’ll be back.” Photos from Obiena‘s Facebook page

“I learned a long time ago to take one day at a time, and that’s exactly what I am going to do. Thank you again for your support and standing by me. I love you all, and we all share a common love and pride for the Philippines. (Carlos)  @c_edrielzxs has already made this an Olympics to remember and I salute him. I am sorry I didn’t join him on the podium but I will be back. ‘The good get up,’ as they say. I have been knocked down. But I will get back up.”

Filipinos rarely agree on things, but EJ’s humility has elicited the same supportive, positive reactions—a virtual hug 10,700 kilometers away, for this guy who has won gold medals in so many competitions around the world and held our flag above his head. Many comments have noted that Carlos Yulo placed fourth in Tokyo and won two gold medals in Paris.

One commenter pleaded, “EJ, one more try please! LA2028.”

Of the thousands of comments in the past 24 hours on so many threads, this short one for me distills how Filipinos feel about EJ Obiena: We don’t want him to stop because we continue to believe in him. We know his sacrifices and we ask for a few more—to just try on behalf of us all.

I am sure I speak for many when I say that I’ve never looked forward to the next Olympics as I do now.  

Editor in chief

The new lifestyle.