Hidilyn Diaz

Hidilyn Diaz is a Filipino weightlifter, educator and airwoman, born on 20 February 1991 in Zamboanga, who became the first Filipino to win an Olympic gold medal. She competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics as the youngest competitor in the women's 58 kg category, won silver in the women's 53 kg division at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the first Filipino medal in a non-boxing event since 1936, and won gold in the 55 kg category at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. There she set Olympic records of 127 kg in the clean and jerk and 224 kg in the total. She learned the basics of lifting from her cousin, trained at first with makeshift barbells, and later earned a business management degree and set up her own weightlifting academy.