By CJ HIRRO

Ah, what a ray of golden sunshine Hidilyn Diaz brought to a week of remorseless rains and nearly a century of Olympic struggles. What a way to lift our collective soul after over a year of Covid-19 heartaches and fears.

No matter if it took a lot of waiting because the Tokyo Games had to be delayed for a year, it’s just what we needed right now -- a symbolic shot in the arm, in effect like the vaccination we’re aching and lining up for to wash away our pandemic cares.

When she heaved a euphoric sigh after completing her final, gold-medal clean-and-jerk lift, we exhaled with her our shared pains and frustrations, and wept together in relief and triumph. It was mighty sweet and refreshing.

Hidilyn, with all 55 kilograms of pure grit and (in case you've impossibly not noticed these past few years) some red lipstick, showed us it could be done. Winning the country's first Olympic gold medal, and in a badass sport of weightlifting, quite literally, is girl power at its grandest.

She told Filipino reporters covering the XXXII Olympiad after the medal ceremony that she was worried about falling short and so nervous all throughout the competition, even as they insisted that she looked confident. It’s probably the red lipstick she was wearing -- even if it was already less visible after all the grunts, sweat and tears.

During the 2018 Asian Games, the unassuming Zamboangeña told Philippine Olympic Committee Deputy Secretary-General Karen Caballero how pale-scared she was going to her event.

"Maglipstick ka para di halata," Ms. Caballero advised her. "'Pulahan mo -- that's my war paint color sa meetings pag gusto kong manindak." She started wearing red lipstick ever since in competitions and in trainings.

In the process, she as well added some glam and oomph to women’s weightlifting. I’m reminded of Pampanga's Kumander Liwayway, the enigmatic and legendary Huk leader as known for her guerilla spunk as her glamour girl “porma” in battles.

The daughter of Mexico’s wartime vice mayor who was killed by invading Japanese Imperial Army soldiers in 1942, Remedios Gomez-Paraiso was the town beauty queen before she enlisted in the resistance movement.

Underground life and warfare could have easily extinguished the fashionista in Remedios, but as she rose to become a squadron leader, she continued to dress up and wear lipstick, even in military exploits.

Well, why not? Once a beauty queen, always a beauty queen. Who doesn’t want to die beautiful, right? It could as well be her way of inspiring her men, or intimidating her foes.

She was also fighting, as a comrade once quoted her, "for the right to be myself.” Or probably, just like Hidilyn, wearing the bright lipstick helped hide all the inner scare and subdue the fear... ...And win for all of us.