Sixteen years have elapsed since the Philippines was represented in a Winter Olympics; the first time was in the 1972 Sapporo games when cousins Ben Nanasca and Juan Cipriano competed in alpine skiing. The two lads were adopted and lived in Andorra, and took to skiing in the Pyrenees. They became so proficient that the Swiss government recruited them for an alpine skiing group, which paved the way for their Olympic stint under the Philippine flag.
Ocampo’s journey was unlike our pioneer Olympians who had a large support group in New Zealand and the Philippines. Born in Lubao, Pampanga on 10 Feb. 1953, he and his family migrated to Canada when he was 11. The young Ocampo channeled his energies into sports of all kinds—as a high-schooler, he became a member of his school’s basketball team that won the state championship. Even as a political science student at UCLA and later, as a law student, he was running marathons in between poring over legal tomes.
After passing the bar, Ocampo went into private practice and continued with his love of sports. In 1986, the year he got employed by Oracle Corp., he became fascinated with luge—a fast race on artificial ice tracks using racing sleds that could be maneuvered to reach over 140 kilometer per hour.
What was amazing was that Ocampo learned the sports from scratch. He would watch old video tapes of past winter Olympics editions, but when he reviewed the Sarajevo Olympics of 1984, he was surprised to learn that tropical Puerto Rico was represented by a skier named George Tucker. He seriously began entertaining the thought of representing the country of his birth.
First, Ocampo began investing in the sport, spending as much as $20,000 alone for trips and equipment. He started intensive dry-land training on a sled with wheels and joining races. His first big one was at the Empire State Games at Lake Placid in 1986, finishing a creditable 7th in his over-30 age group. One of those he defeated was Puerto Rican George Tucker! The experience buoyed his confidence and thus began his personal mission to ski for the Philippines.
But first, he needed the permission of the Philippine Olympic Committee in Manila via the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco. It took awhile to convince sports officials that his application was valid: the International Olympic Committee allows an athlete to represent the country of his birth so long as he has not competed in the same sport for another country. Besides, as a dual Filipino-American citizen, he was eligible to don the Philippine tri-color.
The national committee however, required him to hold a Philippine passport first—and thus began a series of frustrating passport issues that imperiled his Olympic dream. ''Luging is hard enough,'' he realized, but ''the paper trail was the hardest part.'' A personnel from the consulate volunteered to take his case, and his cache of supporting documents to Manila to discuss his request with the Olympic committee.
But the official’s timing was bad; Corazon Aquino had
just ousted Marcos, and a new government was being put in place. It did
not help that the official had strong ties with the Marcos
administration, so upon landing in Manila, he was withheld, and his papers were
confiscated, including Ocampo’s pertinent documents. The
disappointed Olympic hopeful had to start all over.
Ocampo personally sent a letter to Vice President Salvador H. Laurel. He sent another letter to Sec. Gen. Francisco Almeda—who had denied his first request. The United States Luge Federation even sent a letter of recommendation to convince the Olympic committee. When still a deluge of letters and telex messages from Ocampo were left unanswered, the weary athlete phoned Almeda directly, finally convincing him how serious he was. It turned out that Pres. Aquino had learned of his plight, so she pressed the sports official to allow him to compete. With that final go-signal, Ocampo gave a big sigh of relief as he mused: ''It was an exhausting process…more exhausting than lugeing.''
When the 15th Winter Olympics unfolded in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on 13 February 1988, the triumphant Ocampo marched into the McMahon Stadium, proudly holding the Philippine flag up high. Accompanied by his American coach, he was the lone Filipino among the thousands of international athletes who congregated in Calgary that year to vie for medals in the premiere winter sport games of the world. He was a sort of a novelty athlete coming from a non-winter country, and Ocampo got all the close-ups in the opening ceremony at McMahon Stadium in Calgary.
Never has there been an athlete who have worked and
prepared as hard as Raymond L. Ocampo Jr.—even before
the Games had started. ''A medal is not something I'm shooting for,''
the Filipino winter Olympian said. ''But whether I win one or not, it
would be nice to bring a focus to the Philippines for something other than the
troubles they have been having. That's just the way I feel.''
Ocampo finished in 35th place, in a field of 36 starters. Finishing ahead of him in 34th place was George Tucker—yes, the same Puerto Rican luger he beat in 1986, and a returning Olympian. He beat out last placer Albertu Carpentier Altin of Netherland Antilles. The Washington Post noted that Ocampo’s next-to-last finish was still a victory for the Philippines.
(POSTSCRIPT: In 2010, Raymond served as an honorary captain
of the U.S. Olympic Luge Team that competed in Vancouver, Canada. After retiring
from Oracle Corporation in 2015, Ocampo
became a private investor and served on the boards of companies and nonprofit
organizations, like the Asian Pacific Fund, a foundation that he chaired from
2006-2010. Ocampo is the principal founder of the Filipino Bar Association of
Northern California (FBANC) and the
President/CEO of Samurai Surfer LLC, a private investment company . His
philanthropic work includes annual scholarships and internships he has provided
to FBANC since 2000 and National Filipino Lawyers Association (NFALA)
Foundation since 2020.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Ocampo
Raymond L. Ocampo Jr. , https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=667210&privcapId=338154
“NEXT-TO-LAST FINISH A VICTORY”, The Washington
Post, 16 February 1988.
OLYMPIC PROFILE: RAYMOND OCAMPO; One-Man Luge Team
With Tale of 2 Flags, By MICHAEL JANOFSKY, Nov. 29, 1987, https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/29/sports/olympic-profile-raymond-ocampo-one-man-luge-team-with-tale-of-2-flags.html
Pictures: https://www.h5.com/ray-ocampo-jr/, New York Times, Nov. 29, 1987
Screen Grabs:, 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics Opening
Ceremony, youtube
