HIDILYN Diaz remains in disbelief after winning the country’s first-ever gold medal in the Olympics on Monday.
“I slept at 5:30 a.m., woke up at 7 a.m. and I still couldn’t believe that I won a gold medal,” Diaz shared in a virtual press conference from the Tokyo Olympics Village on Tuesday morning. “Good morning, thank you, God.”
Diaz finally broke a 97-year Olympic gold medal drought for the Philippine when she won the women’s -55 kgs class of weightlifting on Monday night. It ended a Philippine quest that dates back to the Paris 1924 Olympics.
“The journey to the Olympic gold medal wasn’t easy, but it was made possible by the people behind Team Diaz, the government, the private sponsors, and the Philippine Olympic Committee [POC] for giving us athletes the opportunity to be here in the Olympics,” the 30-year-old Diaz added.
Diaz lifted 97 kgs in snatch en route to two new Olympic records—127 kgs in clean and jerk and 224 kgs in the total lift—to win the gold.
“Here’s the lady that we’ve waited for the past 97 years,” POC President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said in the same online press conference.
Diaz has come a long way in the Olympics, from being a first-time participant in Beijing in 2008 to being injured in London in 2012 to winning silver in Rio de Janeiro to finally capturing gold on Monday.
Diaz was emotional while waiting for her turn to step on the podium and she was already in tears when Mikee Cojuangco Jaworksi, the International Olympic Committee’s Representative to the Philippines, gave her the medal and the winner’s bouquet.
Tolentino and his secretary-general at the POC, Atty. Edwin Gastanes, and Philippine Sports Commission Chairman William “Butch” Ramirez and his chief of staff, Marc Velasco, were holding back tears while filming the historic event off stage. And when the Lupang Hinirang was played and the country’s colors were raised for the very first time in Olympic history, all emotions went loose.
“I got goosebumps all over,” Velasco said, wiping away tears.
“Nothing is impossible, even in this pandemic,” added Diaz in the press conference “We were able to do this amid the pandemic when the risk is there ready to strike anyone of us” she said. (JNP)