Career
She competed in the and was also the youngest competitor in the women"s 58-kg category in that same Olympics. Diaz was selected as a wild card entry to the Summer Olympics by the Philippine Weightlifting Association in early 2008. She is the first female weightlifter to compete for the Philippines in the Olympics, and the second weightlifter overall (the first being her coach, Ramon Solis).
Competing in the women"s 58-kg class, 17-year-old Diaz lifted 85-kg in the snatch and 107-kg in the clean and jerk for a 192-kg total, breaking the Philippine record that she herself set at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games.
Although she placed second to last in a field of 12 weightlifters, her performance was praised and considered promising for her age. Philippine Sports Commission Chairman William Ramirez once commented that she competed there to gain valuable experience and predicted that she would be a strong contender in future competitions.
Diaz became the first filipina weightlifter to compete in consecutive Olympics, by qualifying in the Women"s Weightlifting under 58 kg through the Continental and World Qualifying Tournaments. She was ranked ninth in her event heading to the Olympics.
During the 2012 London Olympics Diaz was chosen to be the flagbearer during the Opening Ceremony.
She was coached by Tony Agustin, and they projected a 225 kg lift, above her personal best of 219 kg. She successfully lifted a personal best of 97 kg in the snatch, 12th best among the 19 competitors. However her 118 kg Clean and Jerk was unsuccessful after three attempts.
She is one of two competitors (along with Lina Rivas of Colombia) to end with an official result of "Did not finish" (DNF) in the event.
Hidilyn Diaz weighed around 56.28 kg during her first Olympic campaign, making her the lightest among competitors. Come 2012 Olympics, Hidilyn Diaz increased her weight to 57.70 kg but still struggled making it to the top half of the competition.
Trying to improve her chances of landing a podium finish at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Diaz decided to drop weight from under 58 kg to under 53 kg. This proved to be effective as she recently snatched the Gold Medal in the 1st Southeast Asian Weightlifting Championship in Bangkok.
She managed to lift a 98 kg snatch and a 115 kg clean and jerk for a 213 kg total.
The same mark is good for 4th place in the 2012 London Olympics. Diaz also earned three bronze medals for the clean, jerk and snatch events in the 53 kg division of the IWF World Weightlifting Championship held in Houston, Texas on November 22, 2015 to claim a spot in the 2016 Rio Olympics. On March 2016, Diaz dominated the women"s 58kg event of the 2015-2016 Philippine National Games National Finals held at Lingayen Town Plaza, Lingayen, Pangasinan, with a 92 kg snatch and 120 kg clean and jerk (new personal best) combined into 212 kg.