New year, new goal for Diaz

Hidilyn Diaz could be making another shot at Olympic glory after all.

In one of her first social media posts for 2022, Diaz hinted at the possibility of making another run in the Paris Olympics in 2024.

The star weightlifter posed with a figure of Eiffel Tower, the most iconic Parisian structure, together with a caption that perfectly sums up her plans for the next couple of years.

“New Year. New Beginning. New Goal,” said Diaz, who also posted a photo with the members of her team in coach Julius Naranjo, nutritionist Jeaneth Aro and psychologist Karen Trinidad during their recent New Year get-together.

Diaz’s career is nothing but outstanding.

She first started competing in the Olympics as a wild card entry at 16 years old in Beijing in 2008 before crashing with an injury in the Summer Games in London in 2012.

But in the next edition of the Games in Rio de Janeiro, Diaz made a lot of heads turn when she copped the silver medal, the country’s first Olympic medal since Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco of boxing won it in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Then, she bucked the challenges of training amid the pandemic to finally win the country’s first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo last August after 97 years of futility.

Diaz was supposed to start chasing for another slot in the Olympics, but she changed her mind and opted to beg off from seeing action in the 2021 World Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan last month.

Although she was already in her training ground in Malaysia, Diaz begged off as she was still on a high after the marriage proposal of her boyfriend Naranjo, sparking speculations that she is ready to retire to start her own family.

“Let’s give it to her. She will compete when she’s ready and she claims she’s not ready, let’s respect that. We give her our blessings because it’s time for her to enjoy,” Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas Monico Puentevella said.