Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz Wins Silver Medal at Rio Olympics

Wazzup Pilipinas!

We now have our very first medal for the country thanks to Hidilyn Diaz, who won second place (silver) in the 53kg weightlifting category competition at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Taipei got the Gold while Korea will be bringing home a Bronze medal.

This is Philippines' first Olympic medal since 1996! That's 20 years after - two decades of waiting for the Philippine flag to flutter at an ‪Olympic‬ games awarding ceremony. 

 

The lady from Zamboanga is on her third consecutive Olympics after earning a wildcard berth in 2008 Beijing and qualifying through rankings in 2012 London. She was the flag-bearer in 2012 London Olympics.

“Naramdaman ko ang presence ni God kanina nung bumubuhat ako,” said Hidilyn Diaz. "I expected to win the bronze going to this competition, na-shock ako nung sinabi sa akin na na-zero yung China.” - Hidilyn Diaz

For decades, we join the Olympics just for attendance purposes only. This time, we are a proud nation because we have a medal.The Philippines will be at the tally board. This is what I call honor for flag and country. This should be the attitude of all our athletes from all sports.

Although we don't expect much in this #RioOlympics because we know how we're pale in comparison to other dominant countries, getting a silver medal is a huge, huge thing that we can be proud of. If we had a bigger budget allotted to gain access to all the finest facilities & a good boost of support by our government before President Duterte's seat in office, these athletes could have surely performed well. 

Before they left the country they visited Malacanang and all of them cried for joy when the President encouraged and gave them his full support. Duterte increased their allowance from USD1000 to USD3000 and even promised them to develop more promising talented athletes and give more budget for the athletic department. The athletes moral were boosted and left Philippines with inspired hearts.

Any Pinoy who disregards the significance and importance of Hidilyn's achievement must have inoculated himself the virus of selfishness - an unpatriotic outlook in life.

We should put honest leaders in our Olympic committee and give more support to our athletes. Let us look at events that we can participate in like air rifle shooting, etc. We should also get corporations to support our athletes and create great facilities for them to train in.

Congratulations again, though there will be more athletes to compete, so we just have to wait and pray. Good Luck to all of our Pinoy Olympians and Mabuhay Philippines.

Being a weightlifter, Hidilyn embodies all Filipinos who carry incredible weight every single day- horrendous traffic, crime, low wages, corruption, poor social services and the list goes on. Still we persevere!

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