Manny Pacquiao is probably the first Philippines sportsperson from our generation to inspire millions. That’s years ago. Today, nobody is even close to what Hidilyn Diaz has achieved for her country. Who would have thought about it years ago?
Eduardo and Emelita Diaz have six children, and Hidilyn is their fifth. They come from Mampang village near Zamboanga city. The village is still developing, and most of the people are still under the poverty line. When Hidilyn was growing up, the conditions used to be worse. They had to travel a few kilometers for water. Along with her siblings, Hidilyn used to bring in water. Probably, that explains her strength.
Mr. Eduardo used to sell vegetables, and years later, he was into farming and fishing. While she didn’t miss school, she used to help out her father. At times, the siblings used to wash cars for money. Their childhood was simple, and they were happy with whatever they had, sometimes, rice and salt would be their dinner. Living in a makeshift house, the family used to dine outside as there wasn’t enough space for eight of them.
Money was always a problem that all young Hidilyn wanted to do when she was growing up was to be a banker so that, she can keep counting money. She also tried multiple sports, but nothing worked well for her.
The families used to live as a community, and most of Hidilyn’s cousins lived nearby. Catalino Diaz Jr, who is six years older than Hidilyn, used to gather cousins and would make them lift weights. He saw something special in her and convinced her parents to join a different gym. Since then, along with her cousin Allen, she used to train with Catalino Diaz.
Since they couldn’t afford the real barbells, they made one out of trees, plastic pipes and then concrete weights shaped in tin cans. The kids used to enter a competition, mainly because of scholarships and the incentives from the Government.
As her interest grew in weightlifting, she attended local competitions regularly and soon was invited to the national team for training. Thus, she had to leave her village to move to team headquarters in Manila.
Her first big medal came in the SEA games in 2007 (She also won silver in 2011 and 2013 editions) where she won the Bronze. Soon, in 2008, she became the first female weightlifter from the Philippines in the Olympics after she was awarded the wildcard entry. In the next Olympics, she was the flag-bearer for her country.
From 2012-2014, things didn’t go well for her. So bad that she couldn’t even make it to her national team. Failures took a toll on her, but somehow she came back stronger.
Right before the Rio Olympics, she was around 57 kgs. She tried to increase her weight to compete in the 58 kgs category for the Olympics, but that didn’t work out. Thus, she lost a few kgs to compete in 53 kgs. This turned out well for her.
In 2015, She had Gold in Asian Weightlifting Championships (In 2016, she won Bronze here) and also had bronze in World Weightlifting Championships.
In Rio Olympics, she won the silver medal. She proved everyone wrong as she became the first Filipino woman and the second sportsperson from her city to win an Olympic medal. This was also the country’s first medal in Summer Olympics after 20 years.
Unfortunately, her parents couldn’t watch her win as there was a network issue in her village. It was around 3 am in the Philippines, and her mother ended up praying the whole time. The whole village celebrated her victory, and she got incentives from all over the world.
With all the money, she finally constructed her own gym and was able to buy lands for her family. She also bought multiple lands and turned them into a training area for the people back in the village.
Hidilyn had won almost every major medal in her career. Many would be happy with what they had achieved, but Hidilyn refused to give up. All her eyes were on the Gold medal. Something nobody from her country had ever achieved.
The country has been seeing millions of athletes right since 1924. Still, none of them was able to win gold for the country. Hidilyn wanted to be that person.
With the coronavirus pandemic taking over the world, financial issues clouded Hidilyn’s training. She took to social media to ask for help. Soon, she received donations from various organizations, and that had helped her to move to an isolated area along with a few members of her team.
As she entered this year’s final, she initially tied with China’s Liao who kept getting better with every attempt. In the end, Hidilyn came through in the final attempt to give the Philippines their first-ever Gold medal.
Emotions took over as she stood at the podium. Still, in tears, she sang her national anthem in a top voice while watching her country’s flag fly high for the first time.
30 now, Hidilyn had already said that she is not sure how long she can keep going. Her body isn’t the same anymore. However, today, she said that she would aim to participate in the next Olympics before bursting into tears once again.
