EXPECT NO WEIGHTLIFTING FEVER
Despite Hidilyn Diaz’s groundbreaking gold medal victory in the Tokyo Olympics, young Filipinos are not expected to take up weightlifting anytime soon due to lack of facilities and a concrete program.
“There is a misconception that weightlifting can be done on fitness gyms. It is more complicated than that,” said Cyrus Dickson Cruz, founder of the University of the Philippines weightlifting club.
“There are only a few gyms in Metro Manila where you can train in weightlifting. The equipment used in weightlifting is different,” he said.
Making matters worse is that gyms are closed because of the pandemic. Cruz acknowledged that interest in weightlifting rose following Diaz’s silver finish in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016, “but it only lasted for a year and half.”
“But since Hidilyn won the gold, I don’t know,” said Cruz, who, at 30, is completing a degree in sports science at UP.
Cruz said the club that he founded in 2014 has about 50 members, of whom only about four have continued training despite the restrictions.
“Somehow, the four managed to put up their own gym inside their homes. Otherwise, most of us are inactive,” Cruz said.
It is more complicated than that.
Speaking from his own experience, Cruz said he was lured into weightlifting after watching the 2012 London Olympics.
Then into martial arts, Cruz said he was lifting weights to get stronger, but was amazed when he saw weightlifters snatch the barbell and raise it overhead in one motion.
He became curious and started to scour YouTube for instructional. “It took me nine months to understand the techniques and intricacies of the sport,” Cruz said.
Like most, if not all weightlifting coaches in the country, Cruz said he’s largely self-taught. He has not attended a single clinic.
He fears that with the indefinite closure of gyms, weightlifting might lose the remaining adherents.
It isn’t simple to bring the equipment at home, according to him. Apart from its expensive equipment — a bar costs P20,000 and a set of plates around P70,000, weightlifting requires an ample space and heavy-duty wood platform.
This is one reason why only a few can afford to have their own setup at home.
Cruz himself doesn’t have one.
Before the pandemic, Cruz placed the number of serious lifters at a little over a hundred.
“We don’t have a weightlifting culture that China has. Weightlifting is even shown on television,” he said. “What we have here is a culture of festivities.”
Another reason why the sport is not gaining traction is that it does not offer a lucrative future unless you’re Hidilyn Diaz.
“Between basketball and weightlifting, the choice is a no-brainer,” Cruz said.