A PICTURE that needs no caption—Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino consoling in his arms the country’s first Olympic gold medalist, Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo.
“You’re still the queen,” Tolentino tells Diaz-Naranjo who only minutes before saw her name outside the magic 10, which qualified for the weightlifting competitions at the Paris Olympics.
“You are still our champion, you deserve all the honor and respect for giving our country its first gold medal,” Tolentino kept telling Diaz-Naranjo.
Three years ago at the pandemic delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Diaz—she wasn’t married yet to coach and trainer Julius Naranjo—hugged Tolentino in extremen delight, in tears of joy after it sunk into her that she won the country’s first Olympic gold medal inside the Tokyo International Forum.
On Wednesday night in Phuket, Diaz-Naranjo, competing in a weight division four kilos heavier than -55 kgs where she won gold in Tokyo, wound up 11th in the International Weightlifting Federation World Cup, the last qualifier for Paris.
It wasn’t unexpected though, Diaz-Naranjo missing a fifth-straight Olympics and another shot at the gold because -59 kgs wasn’t fit to her physique.
“’I’m sorry, Cong, I’m sorry … ,” she repeatedly told me,” said Tolentino, who as the national sports association head for cycling when Diaz-Naranjo made her Olympic debut as a 17-year in Beijing 2008, never ceased to follow the Zamboanga City pride’s rise to glory.
“You don’t have to say sorry, again, anak, you’re still the queen, a legend,” Tolentino told Diaz-Naranjo.