Philippines’ Hidilyn Diaz competes during the women’s 53kg weightlifting event at the Rio 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro on August 7, 2016. AFP
Hidilyn Diaz has long been advocating for better training facilities for the Filipino athletes.
After her latest post that showed the sorry state of the Philippine team’s weightlifting gym evoked strong emotions about the plight of the national athletes, things may be looking up.
The 2016 Rio Olympic silver medalist said on Friday that improvements to the outdated gym are on the way, according to the Philippine Sports Commission.
“Good news! There’s already a winning bid for the weightlifting gym and high performance gym said the Executive Director of the PSC. In three months, the gym will be done. Please! We’ve been waiting for too long,” she said in a tweet in Filipino.
Nagtataka pa ba tayo bakit hanggang ngayon wala pa tayong Gold medal sa Olympics? Sabi ni coach 1990 pagpunta niya dito sa manila ganito na ang gym hanggang ngayon ganito parin. 😑 pic.twitter.com/RU2gtqDGkb
— Hidilyn DiaZ (@diaz_hidilyn) January 10, 2018
Diaz lamented the shabby conditions of Philippine weightlifting team’s facilities inside the Philsports Complex last Wednesday, giving the public a glimpse of the struggles of the national athletes.
“Nagtataka pa ba tayo bakit hanggang ngayon wala pa tayong Gold medal sa Olympics? Sabi ni coach 1990 pagpunta niya dito sa manila ganito na ang gym hanggang ngayon ganito parin,” she wrote.
(And we’re still wondering why we still don’t have a Gold Medal in the Olympics until now? My coach me told that when he came here in Manila in the 1990s the gym already looked like this; and it’s still the same.)
Her tweet garnered varied reactions, but majority shared her views and called for the officials for a better treatment for the athletes.
It turns out, PSC Executive Director Atty. Sannah Frivaldo spoke with Diaz and assured her that improvements are on its way for the Philippine weightlifting team.
The 26-year-old Diaz has been actively helping aspiring Philippine weightlifters to hone their craft as she staged the Hidilyn Diaz Weightlifting Open Championship last year and even built her own gym in her home in Zamboanga City.
Diaz cleared that her cry for help on Twitter was not done to get sponsors.
“I didn’t do this just to get sponsors,” she said in a reply to a tweet. “I just wanted to air our grievances because we have been waiting for too long for change in sports.”