Hidilyn Diaz: A Silver Medal Journey
The winning streak of the Philippines is continuously flourishing after the succeeding wins of the country to the World renowned competitions.
It all started with the historic crowning moment of the Miss Universe title that was finally clutched by a Filipina, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach on the Miss Universe 2015 that took the country 42 long years before regaining the title. And now on the recently held Rio Olympics 2016, another pride was brought home to our country by the weightlifting silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz.
After 20 year of success-starving of our country to win an olympic title,
Hidilyn Diaz finally stood up and brought home the honour of winning a medal in the world olympics. It took Hidilyn 3 attempts to the olympic game to finally end with a medal. Her olympic journey began on 2008 Olympics as a wildcard entry, where she finishes just above last place before making another run in the 2012 Olympics as the Philippine flag bearer.
At that time, she was unable to record a clean and jerk lift. And on her 2016 Olympic comeback she finally ended up with flying colors, finishing her lift with a silver medal win.
Hidilyn Diaz came from a not so fortunate family, in which she was the breadwinner. She was the 5th among the 6 children and always dreamt of providing a better life for her family specially for mother, who’s according to her interview was her inspiration during her competition.
Her journey towards achieving what she has right now was not as smooth like her victory. She invested sweat, perseverance, time and effort to be able to reach what she has right now. She use improvised materials for her weightlifting training, and has to be contended with a little money she has to be able to bring herself to school.
And now after all her hard-works, everything had paid off. After winning a silver medal in the olympic game, Hidilyn was turned into a well-deserved millionaire winning a 5 million pesos cash prize coming from the Philippine government plus another 2 million pesos coming from President Duterte and another 500,000 pesos coming from Zamboanga City government and other private individuals and sectors who also pledge to give Hidilyn some amount and goods.
It was indeed a success story for Hidilyn Diaz, who ones came from the bottom and now enjoying her victory on the top. But this won’t just stop there for the olympian, she still aiming for a gold medal on the next 2020 olympics, and will continuously inspire others to never give up until you reach your dreams. Just like her lift that started out from the ground, she exerted effort to lift her barbel to fully enjoy the perks of being on top.
