HIDILYN DIAZ

Olympic Medalist

Hidilyn Diaz is changing the landscape of Philippine Sports. She began lifting at the tender age of 11, and snatched her first bronze medal at the 2007 South East Asian Games at age 17—on her first stint as a professional weightlifter. In the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, Diaz lifted a total of 192kg for snatch, and clean and jerk. She broke the record she herself set at the SEA Games a year prior, but placed second to last. At the 2012 London Summer Olympics, she again broke her personal best by lifting 97kg in the snatch but failed to place in the boards. Nevertheless, she slowly paved her way to her most celebrated win yet.

She bagged the silver medal (and only podium finish for the country) during the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. She is the first Filipina to take home an Olympic medal for weightlifting, ending the 20-year Olympic medal drought for the Philippines.

Hidilyn appears to be made for her new-found inf luence. A longtime advocate of sports she advises young aspirants to be serious about training and diet, and value hard work. “Yung maimpluwensiyahan ko ang ibang tao in a positive way, ‘yun ang impluwensiya para sa akin.” She began construction of a gym with complete weightlifting facilities in her native Mampang, Zamboanga to give locals a good place to improve their sport.

As for her own definition of what Pinoy Pride is, she only has this to say: “[Ito] ‘yung pagiging proud as a Filipino. Bilang atleta, nadadala ko ang bansa natin sa ibang bansa.”—KS