Diaz all out for another Olympic gold

by NIEL VICTOR C. MASOY ManilaTimes.net

HIDILYN Diaz has already built a storied weightlifting career. She seized a silver medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics; a gold in the 2018 Asian Games, a gold each in the 2019 and 2022 Southeast Asian Games, a gold in the 2022 World Weightlifting Championships, and the Philippines’ first-ever Olympic gold medal in the 2021 Tokyo Games.

The 4-foot-11 weightlifter from Zamboanga City has made her mark as the only Filipino athlete to have ruled the Southeast Asian Games, Asian Games, World Championships, and the Olympics.

Diaz can simply call it a career today and she will still go down in history as the greatest Filipino Olympian ever.

But the four-time Olympian is not yet done.

Diaz said that she is out for more as she vows to lay it all on the line for another gold medal run in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

“It will be the Olympics again next year, I’ll do everything in my power to win the gold medal in the Paris Olympics,” Diaz said in Filipino on Monday night, March 6, when she received her fourth Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Athlete of the Year award at the Diamond Hotel.

“I wish that I’ll be able to return here next year for my fifth Athlete of the Year award.

Manifesting for weighting and for the Philippines. Long live the Filipino athlete,” she added.

Diaz is tied with boxing champion Nonito Donaire with four PSA Athlete of the Year citations and is just one trophy shy from matching bowling legend Paeng Nepomuceno and boxing great Manny Pacquiao, who has a record five each.

“I’m already 30 plus years old but I’m still here competing, while also working hard to finish my studies. That’s why to those people saying that it’s too late to start, I don’t believe them because age doesn’t matter, it’s just a number. What matters is how you work hard and how bad you want it,” said the 32-year-old Diaz.

“It is important that you love what you’re doing, know your purpose, why you’re doing it, whether for yourself or for your family. To my fellow athletes, we are doing this for our love of our country and for our sports. Us Filipino athletes, we continue to fight our country.

I believe that many of you will follow in my footsteps and win an Olympic gold and be a champion in our field.”

The weightlifter leads the nearly 100 awardees at the 2022 PSA Awards Night.

The PSA handed out the President’s Award to Filipino tennis sensation Alex Eala and the Hall of Fame trophy to the late Lydia De Vega-Mecardo, once hailed as the fastest woman in Asia in the 1980’s. Her daughter Stephanie Paneng Mercado accepted the trophy.

Long jump queen Elma Muros-Posadas was handed the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas (SWP) was recognized as the National Sports Association (NSA) of the Year. Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham ‘Bambol’ Tolentino seized the Executive of Year award while Scottie Thompson and Sarina Bolden were named the Mr. Basketball and Ms. Football plums, respectively. EJ Obiena, Carlos Yulo, the Philippine women’s football team, Carlo Paalam, Meggie Ochoa, and Kimberly Anne Custodio received major awards, among others. 