With Hidilyn’s win, the Philippines ends near century-long gold medal drought in Olympics

Until very recently, the Philippines held a dubious place in the history of the Olympic Games.

The country made its Olympic debut in the 1924 when it sent sprinter David Nepomuceno as the lone representative to the Paris Games.

In close to 100 years since then, the Philippines had never won a gold medal – until weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz ended that drought with a gold medal performance for the ages in the women’s 55-kg category in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

During the opening ceremony of this edition of the games, the commentary pointed out during the Philippines entrance in the parade of nations that the country had the distinction of having the most medals without a gold.

Though additional research revealed that was not exactly true - Southeast Asian neighbor Malaysia had 11 medals to the Philippines’ 10 – it was close enough that it might have well been.

Swimmer Teofilo Yldefonso was the first-ever Filipino medalist, winning bronze in the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.

He became a two-time medalist in the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, where the Philippines won multiple medals in one edition for the first and only time. Simeon Toribio also won a bronze in the high jump while boxer Jose Villanueva also took home a bronze.

Miguel White won a bronze in hurdles in Berlin in 1936 before the country went on a long medal drought that spanned 28 years.

In the 1964 Tokyo Games, it was Villanueva’s son, Anthony, that ended the drought with the country’s first-ever silver medal, also in boxing like his father before him.

After Villanueva came a string of boxers starting with Leopoldo Serantes, who won bronze in Seoul in 1988. Following him was Roel Velasco, who won bronze in the 1992 Barcelona Games, and his brother, Manueto ‘Onyok’ Velasco, who delivered another silver medal in boxing in Atlanta in 1996.

It took another 20 years before the Philippines saw another medal, but it came from Diaz herself in Rio 2016, where she won her first medal, a silver in the women’s 53 kg weightlifting competition.

It may have taken 97 years, but now Diaz gets to write a whole new chapter in the Olympic history of the Philippines. Now, there is gold. And the future seems brighter than ever.

—JMB, GMA News