By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Respected American magazine Sports Illustrated included Hidilyn Diaz’s historic feat at the Tokyo Olympics in its roundup story on the Games.
In an article “Handing Out Awards for the Olympics” by Brian Cazeneuve posted Sunday, Diaz was mentioned along with a short list of “First Timers” who won the first gold medals for their nations.
Among those included were triathlete Flora Duffy of Bermuda and high jumper Mutaz Barshim of Qatar.
Diaz ended the country’s long wait for a first Olympic gold medal when she won weightlifting’s 55kg women’s division over 2019 world champion Liao Qiuyun of China and Kazakhstan’s Zulfiya Chinshanlo of Kazakhstan.
The article featured the best and worst moments in the pandemic-delayed Olympics.
Among the best moments include Allyson Felix, who became the most bemedalled track and field athlete in the Olympiad with 11 career medals; Lamont Marcell Jacobs as the first Italian to win the men’s 100-meter in athletics; Mutaz and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi, who shared the gold medal in high jumps; and celebrated gymnast Simone Biles’ shocking withdrawal from the team competition that opened doors for discussion on elite athletes’ mental health.
Sports Illustrated’s article came a day after Associated France-Presse, one of the world’s leading news agencies, listed Diaz’s golden as one of the best moments of the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics which drew to a close on Sunday.
“It was a victory celebrated around the Philippines and forged in years of sacrifice by the Rio silver medallist, who trained for almost 18 months in exile in Malaysia because of COVID-19 restrictions,” the AFP said in a story posted for its subscribers.
