Hidilyn Diaz may have to move up in weight if she has to take another shot at glory in the next Olympics set in Paris, France in 2024.
This after the International Weightlifting Federation came out with changes to the Olympic weightlifting classes, retaining only four weight categories that were played in the Tokyo 2020 held last July.
Among those that were not removed was the women’s -55kg class where Diaz bagged the gold medal delivered in dramatic fashion. It was the country’s first gold medal since participating for the first time in the 924 Paris Games.
Diaz’s final lift of 124 in the clean and jerk brought her total to 224 kilograms, just a kilogram ahead of eventual silver medalist Liao Qiuyun of the People’s Republic of China.
The Zamboanga lass rejected retirement even after winning her second Olympic medal and vowed to go for slots in Paris. She bagged a silver medal in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In an article at Olympics.com, the proposed weight classes for the Paris 2024 Games are 61kg, 73kg, 89kg, 102kg, and +102kg for men, and 49kg, 59kg, 71kg, 81kg, and +81kg for women.
The 49kg and 59kg for women and 61kg and 73kg for men will be the holdover events from the Tokyo edition.
There were also changes in the super-heavyweight categories for both men and women with the +109kg class being reduced to have been reduced to +102kg and the +87kg becoming +81kg class, respectively.
The same report said it was still a draft that needed “approval from the IWF’s (International Weightlifting Federation) general council. Once approved, it will be sent to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for clearance. A final decision is expected by the end of February 2022.”
In a report by insidethegames.biz.com, however, the 10 weight categories “has already been agreed upon by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF)…and the “decision has the support of the IWF Athletes’ Commission.”
Since winning the Olympic gold medal, Diaz’s life took a huge turnaround.
Millions of pesos in government and private sector cash incentives and what followed were a deluge of marketing collaborations with various businesses like Jollibee and Smart.
She also went back to the place that has been her home and quarantine training at the height of the pandemic—Malacca, Malaysia where she was adopted as their own. Even the governor of Malacca, Dr. Haji Mohd Alin Bin Mohd Rustam, recognized Diaz for her triumph.
Esquire, one of the country’s premier lifestyle magazines, has put her on its most recent cover as “Esquire Philippines’ Athlete of the Year.”
“I will not only win for myself. I win for weightlifting. I win because of Team HD. I win for the Philippines, and I win for all the athletes,” she was quoted by the magazine’s article.
If she’s not done yet, the Paris Olympics in 2024 will be a lot tougher.