Hidilyn Diaz, center, who won Silver in the women’s 53-kg Weightlifting in the Rio Olympics poses with her parents Emelita and Eduardo Sr. following a news conference upon arrival Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in suburban Pasay city south of Manila, Philippines. The medal was the highest and the first for the Philippines in 20 years. Diaz dedicated her win to her mother.(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
THE PHILIPPINE Sports Commission is zoning in on the next Olympics and expects to get medals out of the effort.
PSC chair William Ramirez has put up a goal-oriented plan geared toward obtaining more medals in the global quadrennial Summer Games in Tokyo 2020 triggered by the silver medal feat of lifter Hidilyn Diaz in the recent Rio De Janeiro Olympics.
“Other countries don’t just dream and hope to get medals in the Olympics,” said Ramirez.
“I if we expect to get medals, we should do something.”
Ramirez said they would invest heavily on foreign training and exposure, hire excellent coaches and make sure the basic necessities such as food and clean and comfortable living quarters are met.
He also said physiologists, psychologists and nutritionists should work alongside coaches in training their athletes.
The silver medal of Diaz broke the country’s dearth of medals in the Olympics the past 20 years.