Tokyo: Triumphant Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz will now forget the years of exile, sacrifice, training and nutrients that take him to the first Philippine Olympic gold by tucking his favorite sweet passion, cheese cake and bubble tea.
“Yes, I will eat a lot tonight,” he smiled when he told AFP from his plan after the last 127kg elevator surpassed the Chinese world record holder Liao Qiuyun in the women’s 55kg class and gave him the first gold after 97 years of Olympic competition after 97 years.
, “I mean, I’ve sacrificed my food, and this is the time to celebrate along with the people behind me.
So I’m really grateful I can eat now, yes,” said the 30-year-old person who stood only 5ft 1in (1 , 58 meters).
Diaz, 30, has convinced somewhere in the folklore of his country’s sports, along with people like Manny Pacquiao, as the only woman from the extended Islands to win the Olympic medal when she took silver surprises in the 53kg class in Rio five years ago , It ended the 20-year medal drought for the country who first competed on the Olympic stage in 1924 in Paris.
He was determined to change Rio Silver to Tokyo Gold and recruit Top Chinese coach Gao Kaiwen two months before taking the first golden heavy iron game in Jakarta in 2018.
Gao, who is also the head coach of the Chinese National Army team, “making a difference in my elevator , “said Diaz.
“He’s a positive person and I like to have it around me.” Gao had trained some Chinese Olympic medalists including the 2012 Superheavyweight gold winner Zhou Lulu.
His experience has been very valuable for the Philippines Servicewoman, which has grown late in his weight lifting career – he did not threaten the podium in two of his first Olympic appearance in Beijing and London.
Gao introduced a new routine and heavier weight in training before he registered the second coach, Julius Naranjo, into what he called “HD Team”, because when the development in lifting was phenomenal.
Diaz lifted 92kg in snatch and 115kg in cleaning and jerk three years ago to win Asian games, 7kg greater than the total silver medal of his Olympics.
On Monday in Tokyo, he destroyed the signs, although in heavy division 2kg heavier, with 97kg snatch and a perfect series of 119kg, 124kg and 127kg in three clean and jerk attempts.
Everything is more extraordinary because Diaz has lived in exile in Malaysia since February last year because of Covid’s pandemic.
He had to hug his life outside his sports – his family, an air force career, college study and managing his weight lifting gym in his home town of Zamboanga on the South Island of Mindanao.
Now he can’t wait to go home.
“I look forward to enjoying life because I have been in Malaysia, I don’t know, almost two years so I’m really thanking I can go home now and celebrate with my family and people who support me,” he told AFP in the international forum Tokyo after being served with his gold medal.
The daughter of a three-wheeled driver in a poor village near Zamboanga, Diaz hasn’t seen his family since December 2019.
He initially went to Malaysia in February 2020 because Gao thought it would be better for him when he focused on qualifying.
But in a few weeks came the restrictions of Covid-19, leaving Diaz for the battle closure of the gym, lack of access to weightlifting equipment and grinding uncertainty whether the game would be held at all.
For months Diaz and “HD Team” stuck in the apartment block in the capital of Kuala Lumpur where they must be careful not to break the ceramic floor while practicing with weights.
But Diazeless Diaz still managed to find time to raise money through an online training session to distribute food packages to poor families at home suffering during Coronavirus Lockdowns.
In October last year, he moved to the South coast state of Malacca where they lived at the house owned by Malaysian weightlifting officials.
He began using the nearest gym but the limit was tightened again, forcing him to exercise in the airport open-air sweltering which was blistered over the past few months.
Now all difficulties have been appreciated and he will be given a welcome hero when he returns to the Philippines.
“I don’t know whether I’m a national hero,” he told AFP after winning his historic Olympic gold on Monday.
“But I am grateful that God uses me to inspire all the younger generations and all the Philippines to continue to fight during this pandemic.”