TOKYO—Hidilyn Diaz has seen it all, heard it all.
She’s watched her name surface in a government matrix that detailed supposed conspiratorial destabilizers. She’s seen her performance dip below standards she is accustomed to. A pandemic stranded her in Malaysia, locking her away from her family for 18 months.
“People said I was over the hill,” Diaz said. “I really went through a lot.
Well, everyone is singing praises to her now, a day after she ended the country’s quest for an Olympic gold medal by ruling the women’s weightlifting 55-kg division at Tokyo International Forum late Monday night.
Bashers who fed her reputation and her name through the social media shredder spent their worthless moral currency to pay for tickets to ride the Hidilyn Diaz bandwagon.
Philippines’ Hidilyn Diaz reacts after placing first in the women’s 55kg weightlifting competition during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Tokyo International Forum in Tokyo on July 26, 2021. (Photo by Vincenzo PINTO / AFP)
The gold medal didn’t just change everything. It made everything she went through worthwhile.
“I sacrificed a lot,” she told reporters here moments after her historic victory. “I didn’t see my parents for a long time. When the pandemic struck, we got stuck in Malaysia. We trained in condominiums. Life was really difficult.”
“But my team and I, we survived it and I’m thankful.”
She will be able to purchase her way out of a lot of inconveniences from now on. She’s about to come into money, a windfall attached to her feat.
“Every hardship I had to go through, God had a reason,” she said.
The reason is the shiny hardware around her neck and the financial bonus that came with it. It is a tradeoff most people would barter their easy lives for.
