User:Jn671/sandbox/Julius Irvin Hikaru T. Naranjo

Julius Irvin Hikaru T. Naranjo (born 14 June 1991) is an American of Filipino & Japanese Descent from the U.S. Territory of Guam. He is known for being a National Team Weightlifter representing Guam, the significant other, Assistant Weightlifting and Strength & Conditioning Coach for Filipina Weightlifter Rio Olympic 2016 Silver Medalist Hidilyn Diaz, and the Co-founder and Filmmaker for Collective Culture.

Family, education and early athletic and professional career
Julius Irvin Hikaru T. Naranjo is the eldest son of a Filipino Father and Japanese Mother and has 3 younger siblings.

Julius had earned his Bachelor of Sciences in Exercise Science & Health Promotions with a minor in Nutrition at the University of Guam in 2013. He was a Manager for a functional fitness facility and Physical Therapy clinic, where he had coached classes and did Strength & Conditioning for Clients and athletes.

Julius had represented Guam's National Weightlifting Team and is a record holder in the old 69kg weight category. He had represented Guam at the 5th Asian Indoors & Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan competing in the 62kg weight category and helping put Guam on the map for weightlifting along with his teammates.

Although Naranjo, showed great promise in his weightlifting career for Guam, he had ultimately retired from the sport due to a career ending back injury, which had opened a door to coaching.

Julius is currently a Weightlifting Coach and a Strength & Conditioning coach, and team manager for Team HD, the Olympic Core team for Hidilyn Diaz as she prepares for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics which is now postponed to July 2021.

Aside from being a coach, Julius is also a Filmmaker who Co-founded Collective Culture and captures weightlifting content to spread awareness of weightlifting on his instagram @imjulius. Julius also has a facebook page by the name Coach Julius Naranjo where he posts coaching content and weightlifting content.

Relationship
Julius is currently dating Hidilyn Diaz and they have both been featured on KMJS where their love story was put on spotlight. They have also been featured by Sports U and Magandang Buhay which are segments on ABS-CBN. They are working together to ultimately try to win the Philippines first Gold medal in the Olympics and to help spread weightlifting in the Philippines.

References