Filipinos greet the float carrying the country's athletes who participated in the Paris Olympics during the 'Heroes Welcome Parade' around the streets of Manila on August 14, 2024. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/File

MANILA — The Philippine Sportswriters Association’s (PSA) Awards Night will be celebrated with a touch of nostalgia as Filipinos who represented flag and country in the Olympics will be given tribute in one of the special highlights of the annual event.

Members of the country’s contingent to both the Paris Olympics and Paralympic Games are going to be recognized for flying the country’s red, white, and blue proud and mighty during the 2024 edition of the Olympiad in the French capital on January 27 at the Manila Hotel.

In addition, in observance of the country’s century of participation in the quadrennial showcase, beloved members of Philippine teams to the Olympics in the past six decades will join their Paris counterparts in what is the biggest Awards Night ever by the nation’s oldest media organization headed by its president Nelson Beltran, sports editor of The Philippine Star.

Previous Olympic teams will have their respective representatives per batch as distinguished by the Philippine Olympians Association.

First-ever Filipino double gold medal winner Carlos Yulo and fellow Paris Olympic medalists Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas are going to be honored with the highest awards in the formal affair.

Yulo of course, is the recipient of the Athlete of the Year, major awards will be handed out to both Petecio and Villegas, while the country’s breakthrough gold medalist in the Olympics, Hidilyn Diaz, is to be recognized separately as she is set to be enshrined in the PSA Hall of Fame.

Comprising the Philippine team to the Paris Games are EJ Obiena, Lauren Hoffman, John Cabang Tolentino, Carlo Paalam, Eumir Marcial, Hergie Bacyadan, Samantha Catantan, Bianca Pagdanganan, Dottie Ardina, Aleah Finnegan, Emma Malabuyo, Levi Jung-Ruivivar, Kiyomi Watanabe, Joanie Delgaco, Kayla Sanchez, Jarold Hatch, Elreen Ando, John Ceniza, and Vanessa Sarno.

On the other hand, the compact six-man Paralympic team is composed of Agustina Bantiloc, Jerrold Mangliwan, Cendy Asusano, Ernie Gawilan, Angel Otom, and Allain Ganapin.

Meanwhile, previous Olympic teams and their representatives include 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), 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).