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. (Photo by GOH Chai Hin / AFP)
It’s quite ironic that the sport where the nation first secured an Olympic gold medal still isn’t—and hasn’t been—part of the Palarong Pambansa calendar. That could finally change under the new administration of the Department of Education (DepEd).
Weightlifting heroine Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo made a courtesy call to Education Secretary Sonny Angara recently, looking to boost her sport’s inclusion in the annual national Games featuring the finest student-athletes from the elementary and high school levels.
Though the meeting, where Diaz-Naranjo brought her husband-coach Julius, was exploratory, it could jump-start the long-running call of the local weightlifting community for a possible Palaro inclusion.
Timeline: Hidilyn Diaz and her journey to making Olympic history
“I’ve tried talking to DepEd for more than 10 years and need all the help [I can get]. The only light at the end of the tunnel now is the entry of Secretary Angara, who is a real sportsman,” Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas president Monico Puentevella told the Inquirer.
Diaz-Naranjo brought the popularity of the sport to an unprecedented level after capturing a silver medal in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games and eventually the country’s first gold in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Training centers across the nation have mushroomed, with kids as young as 5 years old picking up a pair of metal plates on a steel bar.
READ: Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo’s legacy will remain untainted
Diaz-Naranjo told Angara her plans of staging competitions sanctioned by the DepEd and holding clinics for technical officials.
The Naranjos have their own grassroots program in Jala-Jala, Rizal province, where they put up a gym that caters daily to the kids in their locality.
“With Hidilyn’s extra push, I’m optimistic we’ll get it soon this time around. LGUs (local government units) must come in now,” said Puentevella, a former Bacolod City representative.
Puentevella has been pushing for weightlifting in the Palaro for over a decade, as the sport brought honor to the nation in various tournaments overseas, including the world and Asian championships.