{"id":2856,"date":"2022-03-17T00:11:17","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T00:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worabia.com\/news\/top-trends\/2856\/"},"modified":"2022-03-17T00:11:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T00:11:17","slug":"hidilyn-diaz-from-accusations-of-anti-government-plot-to-historic-olympic-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worabia.com\/news\/top-trends\/2856\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidilyn Diaz: From accusations of anti-government plot to historic Olympic gold"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It was the third day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Hidilyn D\u00edaz’s world was about to change forever. Five years of preparation, pain and patience boiled down to one turning point.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The room was silent as she approached the weightlifting platform for her final lift in the women’s 55kg category. China’s Liao Qiuyun was in the lead after successfully lifting 126 kg.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Diaz seemed confident. In focus. He uttered the personal mantra that had carried her through the competition thus far: “Chest out. Deadlift. One move.” She had one last chance to make history for her country with the Philippines’ first Olympic gold. <\/span><\/p>\n

Seconds later, with 127kg of metal lifted dangerously above his head, excitement crossed his face as the bell rang to confirm a clean lift. At 30 years old, she had achieved the victory she had dreamed of for so long. <\/span><\/p>\n

It had been a difficult journey for D\u00edaz, for many reasons. Because of the attitudes he encountered growing up. Because she had found herself locked up in a foreign country for a year because of Covid. And because in 2019 she was named “enemy of the state.” <\/span><\/p>\n

The Philippines first participated in the Olympic Games in 1924, sending only one athlete to Paris: David Nepomuceno, a sprinter. <\/span><\/p>\n

The woman who won the Philippines’ first Olympic gold, ending a 97-year drought, was born in 1991 in Zamboanga City, a city of nearly a million people in the south of the country. One of six children, Diaz’s father made a living providing short-distance transportation on a tricycle, while her mother was a full-time homemaker.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was 11 years old when a cousin introduced her to weightlifting, much to her mother’s dismay.<\/span><\/p>\n

“My mom told me, ‘No one is going to like you when you’re older. That sport is for men. You’ll have big muscles and you won’t get pregnant,'” Diaz says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI still did it because I enjoyed it. But then she started supporting me, when she saw how much she enjoyed it and the benefits she had, like my scholarship to high school\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Diaz was gifted. Within six years he was competing on the biggest stage of all. At just 17 years old, he attended the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he finished second to last in a field of 12.<\/span><\/p>\n

At London 2012 she was the flag bearer for her country, but the Games ended in disappointment as she failed in three attempts to lift her starting weight. Still, everyone had high hopes for the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now combining an athletic career with service in the Philippine Air Force, it was at Rio 2016 that Diaz achieved her breakthrough with silver, the first Olympic medal ever won by a Filipino woman.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to Tokyo 2020, she had further distinguished herself on the international stage with gold at the Asian Games in 2018 and bronze at the World Championships in 2017 and 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

But a year before the Games were held in Japan, there was an unexpected twist that no one saw coming.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2019, D\u00edaz was accused of being involved in a plot to overthrow the country’s president, Rodrigo Duterte.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elected in a landslide victory in 2016 on hardline promises to tackle crime and corruption, the 76-year-old Duterte has attracted intense controversy over a bloody war on drugs and a series of comments seen by many as offensive or sexist. observers.<\/span><\/p>\n

In June, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court called for an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity during his government’s deadly drug crackdown.<\/span><\/p>\n

The accusation leveled at D\u00edaz in 2019 came when Salvador Panelo, the main presidential legal adviser at the time, presented details of an alleged network of <\/span>“enemy”<\/span>external link<\/title><\/path><\/svg><\/span> people and organizations that the government claimed were involved in an “attempt to discredit the Duterte administration.” They called him the <\/span>Matrix “Expel Duterte”.<\/span>external link<\/title><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/p>\n

It included members of opposition political parties, celebrities and journalists, including Duterte’s outspoken critic Maria Ressa, joint winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. <\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, it has been suggested that Diaz’s inclusion was due to the fact that she was followed on social media by blogger Rodel Jayme, who was arrested in 2019 for allegedly sharing videos online claiming that Duterte and his allies were involved in the attack. same drug trafficking that he claimed. be finishing<\/span><\/p>\n

Diaz at first found it all disconcerting. He then began receiving insults from Duterte supporters on social media. Then those close to her were attacked.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I was training when someone messaged me about it,” she says. <\/span><\/p>\n

“They were saying mean things to my dad. I was shocked, but it hurt more when my family got involved. After that, I started crying.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were messaging me on social media, saying mean things and criticizing me, but I didn’t even know what was going on. I don’t know what was going on and they criticized me for something that wasn’t even true.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I was so busy preparing for the Olympics. It was a difficult time, but I was able to get through it with the people who believed in me.”<\/span><\/p>\n

All of this seriously affected Diaz’s mental health. And then came the pandemic. <\/span><\/p>\n

As borders closed and flights were canceled around the world in early 2020, Diaz and his team found themselves stranded in Malaysia, where he was training, with no indication of when they might return home. <\/span><\/p>\n

Using the limited resources available at his rented accommodation in Kuala Lumpur, Julius Naranjo, Diaz’s fianc\u00e9 and trainer, cobbled together a new program. They used the parking area as their cardio space and hung water bottles on bamboo poles to serve as makeshift weights.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The anxiety was so high,” Diaz says. “We didn’t even know what the lockdown was. We thought it would only last two weeks. I’m from the Philippines. My coaches are from Guam and China. We didn’t know anyone in Malaysia.”<\/span><\/p>\n

It soon became clear that the Tokyo Games would have to be postponed.<\/span><\/p>\n

“12 extra months for me [in training]\u2026 I felt like I couldn’t do it,\u201d Diaz says. <\/span><\/p>\n

“When I spoke to our sports psychologist, I felt like crying and telling them how I felt. They just told me to do it day by day. Control the things that I can control because I can’t control anything else.” <\/span><\/p>\n

The following summer everything paid off. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I already knew I would win, I expected it,” Diaz says. “You have to claim before you act. I have to believe that I can do it. <\/span><\/p>\n

“When I was there at the competition, I was like, ‘This is my day. I believe in God, I believe in my team, the last one is I just need to believe in myself.'”<\/span><\/p>\n

When she returned home from Japan with her country’s first Olympic gold, she was congratulated by the very president she had been accused of plotting against. When Duterte spoke to her, he did not explicitly mention her accusation. But he encouraged Diaz to “let bygones be bygones.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Diaz adds: “There was a video call. After that, we met with him at the [Malacanang] Palace. We were happy and I think everyone is happy with the achievement of the Filipino athletes at the Tokyo Olympics.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Claims of a conspiracy to overthrow Duterte were never substantiated. He remains in power. Although he is not eligible to run in the May presidential election because the constitution prohibits him from a second term, his daughter Sara is currently the leading candidate for the vice presidency. The main presidential candidate is the son of Ferdinand Marcos, the brutal dictator who was removed from power in 1986.<\/span><\/p>\n

Diaz admits that nothing could have prepared her or her fianc\u00e9 and trainer Naranjo for how their lives would change. <\/span><\/p>\n

She became a national heroine overnight. The Philippine government would also award him a handsome sum: A law passed by the previous administration guarantees PHP 10 million (approximately \u00a3150,000) to any Filipino who takes home Olympic gold.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The competition was on Monday, I realized that I had won on Saturday,” says Diaz. “I felt like in those five days, I was over the moon. I thought, ‘Is this really the truth? Is this the reality? Am I the first gold medalist? Me? Wow… Just wow.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Big endorsement deals were waiting, and since then his public profile has skyrocketed. Featured in TV commercials, social media campaigns, and billboards. In 2021, the Philippine Post Office honored her with their own set of stamps.<\/span><\/p>\n

And with the platform she now has, Diaz intends to help break down barriers and inspire other young women to pursue their dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I grew up insecure about myself because I got into sports,” she says. “There’s this mentality about women, a stereotype, so it’s good for girls to have someone [different] look up for.<\/span><\/p>\n

“They have someone to look at and say, ‘Big sister Heidi did it. I can do it too.'”<\/span><\/p>\n