Roman Gabriel passes away at 83

Ha! Filipino Olympic divers are “something” alright. Not much to brag about there; however, some Filipino and Indonesian swimmers who come from long family lines of deep sea swimmers have larger spleens and can swim much longer and further than most humans. Bajau people 'evolved bigger spleens' for free-diving

 

Interesting...I thought that the official language was English although there were a lot of recognized languages spoken in the archipelago.

 

In high school one week we were asked to write about the attributes of one athlete. I chose Roman Gabriel. I recall writing that he was very good at "throwing the home run ball." I got a D on the paper because the teacher wrote that home runs were in baseball and not in football. My friends and I called the teacher (out of teacher's ears) a sports idiot.

 

I’m convinced they did the belly flops on purpose. They were in the hot tub high fiving. They are famous now.

 

An old marine scout/sniper I knew back in the day once recounted a vivid description of the incredible entertainment value that awaited GIs in one of the more notorious fun spots in Manilla. I later heard from a mutual friend that he'd gone back to the PIs for good.

 

Seemed as though his neck was 3’ long!

 

There are a lot of Americans in the Philippines. They also have the largest Veterans Administration clinic outside the USA. It is somewhat easy to live there as an expat American.