Filipina racer Bianca Bustamante sits down with athletes Inna Palacios, Agatha Wong, Angie Mead King, and Marlon Stöckinger to talk about their takes on women in formerly male-only sports, and the growth of Philippine sports today
McLaren’s first female driver in its Driver Development Program Bianca Bustamante returned to her home country after racing in Barcelona and received a warm homecoming from her Filipino fans. This racing prodigy has dreams of moving to the top rungs of world motorsport. While she has competed in several tracks across the globe, Bianca is also committed to advancing motorsport in the Philippines.
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With “Race to Inspire,” in Mall of Asia, Bustamante’s impressive and remarkable ascent in the world of racing was spotlighted; and even fans were given the chance to experience the thrill of the sport with a racing simulation. However, what took center stage was the panel discussion—the racing phenom brought together Filipino-Swiss former racing driver Marlon Stöckinger, racer and car-builder Angie Mead King, footballer and ASEAN Women’s Championship medallist Inna Palacios, and wushu athlete and SEA Games medallist Agatha Wong to share their unique points of view about the development and dynamism of Philippine sports today especially for the women.
The Women in the Athletic World
Sports—especially those formerly male-only—pose formidable challenges. The woman’s pursuit is often met with inequalities on many levels between male and female athletes—participation numbers, for example, for Filipina racers are only 11. “That’s a big hurdle in the industry,” Angie Mead King says. “Women don’t want to drive because it’s mostly males, but all you need is confidence and thick skin. I feel that if females are more confident to include themselves, to ask questions so that they learn—that’s a huge step. Get access to information, learn, and execute it. That’s what I did; so for me, you can put me down, but I’m going to show up every morning to learn this and do it better than you.”
Marlon Stöckinger echoes this, adding that although there are only 11 Filipinas actively racing, there has been a growing presence of women in various roles in motorsports: press officers, data engineers, and mechanics: “The beauty now is that there’s finally a spotlight being put onto women in the sport. And an engine or a car doesn’t know how to gender-profile you—it doesn’t know if you’re a girl or a boy.”
While that may be so, Laguna native Bianca Bustamante has made no secret of her challenges and difficulties as a girl on the grid, even joking that racing fans have bullied her for wearing makeup or lashes behind the wheel. She declares, “No one really believed in me or supported me until I started winning or achieved some success.”
The drive upward to her remarkable achievements in the motorsport world was full of bumps, but Bustamante and the other panelists recognize that her journey can inspire more Filipinas to conquer the circuits. According to Stöckinger, accessibility and investment into the racing world has grown significantly since the early days of his career: “Motorsport has massively grown with the progression of social media and with what Bianca has done for the sport—now, we’re transpiring a whole new wave of fans and aspiring drivers.”
The Woman Experience in a Male-Dominated World
Inna Palacios, goalkeeper of the Philippine Women’s National Football Team, recounts her own experience—winning in the ASEAN Women’s Championship back in 2022 has had enormous cultural and societal impact, proving that women’s sports deserve to be taken seriously. Though she sees how the inequality persists across the spectrum, she was fortunate to grow up with a mindset that there were no females and males in athletics, just athletes: “At home, I was taught that if you’re playing a sport, you’re an athlete, regardless of whether it is male-dominated or female-dominated. It is and should all be the same.”
Meanwhile, Filipina wushu athlete Agatha Wong shows up for the love of the combat sport, but continues to navigate the struggle to level the playing field against men: “I was one of the only few girls in the national team, and now I’m the team captain of an almost all-boys team,” Wong shares. “Before, all of my senior teammates were male, and I couldn’t count on anyone. Now, that we’re slowly starting to have more female teammates that are younger than me, I see the value of having an older woman to look up to because I didn’t have that. Now, I can guide my female teammates, tell them it’s okay to be emotional. Women are emotional, but we show up each day. And I think that’s important.”
Investing on Filipinos in Sports
All the panelists agree that monetary support is an invaluable asset to an athlete. Palacios in particular highlights how sports continue to be an under-supported field in the Philippines, even though athletes have shown time and again how Filipino excellence can be translated through sports: “We need more investment in sports, more belief in the Filipino spirit because we are meant for the worldwide stage. It’s worth it for the world to see what a Filipino can do.”
Bustamante offers her two cents as well that investing in racers and monetary aid is crucial in motorsports: “It’s not like you can get a ball and you can dribble and you can practice,” she explains. “You can’t drive without financial support.”
But the panelists also do not discount the need for continued emotional support and celebration for the women in athletics. Palacios notes, “It’s so nice to see young kids who are further inspired by events like this—because when you’re visible, you become attainable, and when you’re attainable, you’re telling them that no dream is big enough to reach.”
King weighs in and adds, “If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go with someone. Having a training partner or someone to cheer you on when you’re doing something can work wonders, so having support in the industry is really important. I hope more Filipinas can support other fellow female athletes.”
In line with that, Bustamante also touched on the Olympics during her press conference earlier that day: “When Hidilyn [Diaz] won our first Olympic gold medal, I drew so much inspiration from seeing a woman come out on top in weightlifting which is also a male-dominated sport. Regardless, she still persisted. Carlos [Yulo], too—to get two golds…I’m so inspired by his and Hidilyn’s sacrifices and hard work. It’s a dream of mine to achieve something like that for the Philippines in motorsport.”
Photos and Featured Image: MEGA ARCHIVES, CBR MEDIA, BIANCA BUSTAMANTE (via Instagram)
The post Bianca Bustamante, Inna Palacios, Angie Mead King, and More Talk About Women in Sports appeared first on MEGA.
Bianca Bustamante, Inna Palacios, Angie Mead King, and More Talk About Women in Sports
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