Being both a coach and boyfriend to Hidilyn Diaz, Julius Irvin Naranjo rarely speaks his mind about the future plans of the Olympic weightlifting gold medalist about her sporting career.
But in a recent post on his social media page, Naranjo made it clear that Diaz is not yet done with the sport even after winning the Philippines’ first gold medal recently in the Tokyo Olympics.
“Our journey has only just begun. It is our responsibility to inspire the youth, to be the a voice for sport sciences in weightlifting, and perhaps the voice of clean lifting,” said Naranjo, a former Guam Olympian, who stood as strength and conditioning coach for Diaz during her historic feat.
Theirs has become much more than just an coach-athlete relationship and together, through the help of sports science which Naranjo has put into in Diaz’s regimen, they will go for an unprecedented fifth straight Olympic appearance.
“We have proven that athlete’s can win with sport sciences cleanly and at a time where our sport is going through a lot of challenges. We will do our best to be a role model for future weightlifters,” said Naranjo, alluding to how they trained scientifically and how weightlifting is struggling to keep its clean status in the Olympics amid allegations of doping by some world-class contenders in the sport.
Naranjo will likely fill in the shoes left off by Diaz’s Chinese coach Gao Kaiwen, who was scheduled to go back to China for good, although he was asked by the team to remain as consultant.
Diaz will be 33 by the time the Paris Olympics comes around, but Samahang Weighlifting ng Pilipinas president Monico Puentevella said he will be all-out in support of Diaz’s decision.
This early, Team Hidilyn is setting its sights on the World Championship set in November in Lima, Peru. It will be as short vacation for Diaz and her team as they head back to Malaysia in the third week of September to resume training.
