The country’s first Olympic gold medalist ends her quarantine on August 6, the first day Metro Manila goes under ECQ. She wants to go home to Zamboanga, but the coming lockdown would have made it impossible. And then fate, in the person of one of the country’s most generous businessmen, intervenes.
By Alex Y. Vergara
If plans proceed as scheduled, Hidilyn Diaz, the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medalist, will be done with her quarantine at a five-star hotel in Manila later this week. From there, the 30-year-old weightlifter, fresh from her historic win at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, is free to go anywhere she wishes. Even to her native Zamboanga, where family and a proud and ecstatic city await her.
There’s only one problem though. And it has nothing to do with getting a ticker-tape parade. That’s the least of Hidilyn’s concerns, actually. Whether planned in Manila or Zamboanga City, such super-spreader events are banned for now, as COVID-19 cases continue to rise, no thanks to the highly transmissible Delta variant.
But it is because of this same variant that Hidilyn has no choice but to stay awhile longer in Metro Manila, as the National Capital Region undergoes yet again a two-week Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) starting August 6, the very same day she steps out of her hotel. And this woman urgently needs to leave Manila for Zamboanga to realize her wish as well as keep a promise.
Well, thanks to businessman Manny V. Pangilinan, it looks like she’ll be able to do both without having to leave the metro after all. During a recent Zoom meeting with MVP, says leading talent manager Noel Ferrer, he asked her what she wants. Name it and, if it’s within MVP’s power to grant, consider it done.
“Anyone could have asked for something tangible,” says Noel, who also manages Hidilyn’s career outside of sports. “Instead she asked for something no one would expect. Something that revealed what’s in her heart.”
After being abroad for almost two years, most of it spent in Malaysia training for the Tokyo Olympics that might never happen, Hidilyn understandably misses her family. And she promised her mother that she’d be home on her 68th birthday this Saturday, August 7. “She simply told MVP that she already misses her family,” Noel adds.
MVP, to his credit, quickly understood the situation. Since it would be impossible for Hidilyn to fly home during ECQ, he would instead bring her parents to Metro Manila before lockdown happens.
After going through the wringer, including being confined in a foreign country because of the pandemic, her dream of winning an Olympic gold hanging in the balance, Hidilyn had never once been motivated by money, she says. Instead, it’s all about excelling in the game and bringing honor to the country.
The promised financial windfall, including a car and house and lot, pledged by various sponsors, although welcome, has yet to materialize. “She’s not the type who’d count her eggs before they’re hatched,” says Noel. “Of course, she has financial advisors. But it’s really not about the money.”
She’s also quick to acknowledge that she wouldn’t have gone this far without the support and guidance of her other family, Team HD, including Chinese coach Gao Kaiwen and boyfriend Julius Naranjo, her strength and conditioning coach. She also thanked her countless prayer warriors for storming the heavens with their prayers, especially during the crucial finals that saw her competing head-to-head with her equally driven Chinese rival.
Although Hidilyn considers herself at the top of her game and won’t retire anytime soon, she’s not setting her sights on Paris 2024 just yet.
What she’s so looking forward to though is ending her quarantine and being reunited with members of Team HD. She has had to give up an apartment she was renting in Manila early last year before leaving for Malaysia to train. But not to worry, as she and the rest of her team are staying over for a week for free at Resorts World.
From there, Hidilyn, with her visiting parents, is moving to her new home in Metro Manila courtesy of Megaworld, the same developer behind Resorts World. Located within Eastwood in Quezon City, the fully furnished condominium unit is where Hidilyn continues her journey as the first Filipino athlete to win gold in the Olympics.
Read the rest of Hidilyn Diaz’s story in the forthcoming August-September issue of PeopleAsia magazine.
