Competing in the women's 58-kg class, 17-year-old Diaz lifted 85-kg in the snatch and 107-kg in the clean and jerk for a 192-kg total, breaking the Philippine record that she herself set at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games. She is the first female weightlifter to compete for the Philippines in the Olympics, and the sixth weightlifter overall (the first being Rodrigo del Rosario competing in 1948 London Olympics). 2008 Summer Olympics ĭiaz was selected as a wild card entry to the Summer Olympics by the Philippine Weightlifting Association in early 2008. Diaz became part of the Philippine national weightlifting team at age 13. She went on to compete in various local and national competitions and secured support from the local government. Diaz first competition was the 2002 Batang Pinoy in Puerto Princesa. She had to do part-time work selling vegetables and fish and washing jeepneys to fund her transportation to a local gymnasium. Elementary students not enrolled in UZ were able to train under the program by Institute of Human Kinetics director Elbert Atilano. Prior to high school, Diaz joined the University of Zamboanga's (UZ) extension program to train in weightlifting under her cousin Catalino Diaz who is also her first coach. Competitive career įirst learning weightlifting from her older cousins, Diaz initially lifted using makeshift barbells made of mag wheels or concrete. In 2020, Diaz had re-enrolled into online classes since the Summer Olympics had been postponed to July 2021. In 2019, Diaz went on a leave of absence for her schooling as she had focused on Olympic Preparation after winning the Asian Games. In January 2017, Diaz received a scholarship to study business management at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. ĭiaz in Philippine Air Force uniform with her Olympic silver medal in 2016. After her success in the 2016 Olympics, Diaz decided to continue her tertiary education and intended to pursue a degree related to sports in Manila. She also claimed that it distracted her training. However, Diaz stopped attending the university as a third year irregular student as she found her degree unsuitable for her. In college, she pursued a bachelor's degree in computer science in the same school. Colleges (later Universidad de Zamboanga UZ) for her high school studies under a scholarship. Her cousin, Allen Jayfrus Diaz, taught her the basics of weightlifting. She grew up wanting to be a banker and trying several sports, like basketball and volleyball.
Her father was a tricycle driver before becoming a farmer and a fisherman. Hidilyn Diaz is the fifth of six children of Eduardo and Emelita Diaz. 4.1 Inclusion in alleged ouster plot matrix.On July 26, 2021, at the 2020 Summer Olympics for the women's 55 kg category for weightlifting, Diaz won the first ever gold medal for the Philippines, setting Olympic records for the 55 kg division in the clean and jerk at 127 kg and in the total at 224 kg. In the 2016 Summer Olympics, Diaz won the silver medal in the women's 53-kg weight division, the first Filipino to win a medal in a non-boxing event since 1936 and ending the Philippines' 20-year Olympic medal drought. She competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics, where she was the youngest competitor in the women's 58-kg category. While she was a student and representing Universidad de Zamboanga, she won two golds and one silver in the Asian Youth/Junior Weightlifting Championship held in Jeonju, South Korea. In her early weightlifting years, she was a bronze medalist in the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand and achieved 10th place at the 2006 Asian Games in the 53-kilogram class. She is also an Olympic weightlifting record holder by winning the women's 55 kg category for weightlifting at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Hidilyn Francisco Diaz-Naranjo ( Tagalog pronunciation: born Febru) is a Filipina weightlifter and airwoman, the first Filipino to ever win an Olympic gold medal for the Philippines.