Hidilyn Diaz broke the glass ceiling and made history at the Tokyo International Forum Monday night, July 26 by winning the Philippines' first Olympic gold medal in the 55 kg. category of weightlifting at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics ending the 97-year wait to capture the elusive Olympic gold halting the early consecutive dominance of the Chinese lifters in the first few days of the competition smashing records after records. She became the second Filipino double Olympic medallist after the Teofilo Yldefonso winning the bronze medal in 200 meters breaststroke swimming in the 1928 and 1932 Olympics and the first Filipina woman double medallist. She became the first athlete from Mindanao to win the Olympic gold medal and first double medallist. The diminutive Zamboanga City native lifted a combined total score of 224 kilograms which is a new Olympic record for the event that outweighs China's Liao Qiuyun the current world record holder for the event who lifted only 223 kg. only a point difference which is good enough for silver while Kazakhstan's Zulfiya Chinshanlo took the bronze with a total lift of 213 kg. Hidilyn Diaz total score came from the aggregate score she got from snatch which she lifted 97 kilograms (the heaviest lift she got from 3 attempts) and from the clean and jerk which she lifted 127 kilograms another new Olympic record for Diaz in the clean and jerk. The new Olympic record for snatch was attained by Uzbekistan's Muattar Nabieva by lifting 98 kilograms. This is also the first Filipino Olympic gold medal in weightlifting. In the previous Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Hidilyn Diaz gave the sport of weightlifting its first Olympic medal for the Philippines by getting the silver medal in the 53 kg. category. Hidilyn Diaz endured not just blood, sweat, and tears but also a lack of financial support during her training leading up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but most significantly are the constant bullying and even death threats coming from the supporters and followers of the sitting President to get the Olympic gold. The Philippines now has 1 gold, 3 silvers, and 7 bronzes for a total of 11 medals in the Olympic Games since its first participation in 1924 in the Paris Olympics. The Philippines will celebrate its 100 years with the Olympics in 2024 in the very same city where it made its first Olympic appearance a hundred years ago with a lone entry - David Nepomuceno.
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