THE Philippine Sports Commission approved the renaming of the weightlifting gym as the Hidilyn Diaz Weightlifting Gym along with other facilities inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in honor of the legends of Philippine sports.
Diaz won for the Philippines' its first-ever gold medal in the Olympic Games last month in Tokyo, ending a 97-year wait for the country. Diaz also captured a silver medal in the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics.
The Rizal Memorial tennis center will now be called the Felicisimo Ampon Tennis Court, the swimming venue now named Teofilo Yldefonso Swimming Pool, and the track oval now the Simeon Toribio Track Stadium.
“These athletes have given the honor to the country with their work in sports, we hope to keep their legacies alive for this and next generations. We want to pique the interest of the people who will read about or visit the facility. Who is Teofilo Yldefonso? What did Felicisimo Ampon do that this venue is named to him?” said PSC chairman William Ramirez.
A four-time winner in the Far Eastern Games, Yldefonso became the first Olympic medalist of the Philippines, bagging bronze medals in the 1928 and 1932 Games in the 200m breaststroke.
Ampon became known as the "Mighty Mite" for his accomplishments in Philippine tennis including gold medals in the Far Eastern Games and Asian Games, and appearances in Wimbledon, French Open, and US Open.
Toribio is the first Filipino Olympic medalist in athletics, capturing bronze in the high jump in 1932.
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