Hidilyn Diaz remains committed to a life in sports in the event she calls it quits - but not in the way most would think.
Contrary to offers of becoming the women's national team head coach, the 30-year-old weightlifter believes she can do more as a sports official.
"I think I will be a sports leader after my career because my goal, especially after winning gold medals, is to widen the reach of weightlifting in the Philippines (for) more athletes to take home medals after the winning moment of Filipinos in the Tokyo Olympics," exclaimed Diaz in an interview with News5's Lyn Olavario on Wednesday.
"I am looking more at being a sports leader someday to have more influence with the youth and to hopefully spread weightlifting across the country," she added.
The history-making Filipina cited that being a coach calls for juggling multiple roles despite being compensated for just one.
"I am thankful for the opportunity with [coaching] the athletes, but the role of coach is really big. There are many roles of a coach. You will be the parent and will take responsibility over the athlete," she explained.
Currently, Diaz serves in the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) Athletes' Commission as the Olympian representative. In fact, she was the one who cast the absentee vote during the POC elections in Nov. 2020.
For now, Hidilyn the athlete will head home to Zamboanga City, where she will reunite with her relatives and her townsfolk eager to welcome a hero. After that, she and Team HD are bound for Malaysia on Sept. 20 in order to prepare for the World Championships in Peru in November as well as the Southeast Asian Games and the Asian Games both set for 2022.
"The goal when we get back to Malaysia is to go back into the swing of things. We don't really know for sure if World Championships are going to happen, but we will prepare like there will be," said strength and conditioning coach Julius Naranjo, while also mentioning that one of their targets is for Diaz to claim her first gold in the event.
"The goal here is to not pressure her. The goal here is to lift and have fun. We just want to continue our advocacy. I feel that our journey has just begun. In terms of what we want to do, to be role models for weightlifting," added the coach who is being eyed to replace Gao Kaiwen as head coach.
Naranjo, who is also the Olympic gold medalist's boyfriend, will now possess a bigger role since Gao is slated to return to China to compensate for lost time with his family as like his student, he hasn't seen and been with his wife and father for two years. Still, the Chinese coach is very much open to returning to Team HD.
"I want to come back, but maybe not," he stated. "I am open to being a consultant. Even in China we can do [training] every day because I love Hidi. Team is very good. Maybe [we can train] through the camera together."