Tuguegarao City, Cagayan – One of the few people behind weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz’s historic achievement at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is Dr. Karen Katrina Trinidad, a local of Cagayan province.
Dr. Trinidad is the sports psychologist of the country’s first Olympic gold medalist and has contributed significantly in finally making sports history for the Philippines.
The native of Alcala, Cagayan is currently a sports psychologist consultant for the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) since 2008, and is currently the head of the Sports Psychology Unit for several years now.
According to Dr. Trinidad, she graduated BA Psychology from Assumption College, a Masters Degree in Industrial Psychology at the University of Sto. Tomas (UST), and garnered her Doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology also at UST.
“Psychology is a broad field and I wanted to explore the unexplored fields of it and I became interested in sports psychology since I was a varsity player in swimming,” Dr. Trinidad said.
As a sports enthusiast, Dr. Trinidad added that she has always been interested in studying athletes both in their victories and defeats, and how they become exceptional.
Dr. Trinidad and Diaz have already worked together since the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil where Diaz bagged the Silver medal in weightlifting.
The sports psychologist also said that Hidilyn Diaz has suffered anxiety attacks due to the pressure of the pandemic while gearing towards the Olympics, and that nevertheless, Diaz has always been determined, hard-working and always ready to learn even when she already won the Silver medal back in 2016.
Dr. Trinidad disclosed that the constant communication between her and Diaz during her anxiety attacks have helped the Olympian significantly feel better even if it was only through Zoom meetings, expressing her happiness in being a part of the country’s greatest Olympic victory to date.
“Champions are made with hardwork, determination, and science. We need to work with people with different expertise with one goal- to win. Remember, dreams will remain as dreams without hardwork,” said Dr. Trinidad in a statement.
(Supplementary Data, info and reports from M.Baquiran, CPIO)