Vanessa Sarno

Sarno was born on September 28, 2003[2] and was the second of four children. Her parents work as fishers for their family's livelihood.[3] Sarno took up weightlifting after she joined her cousins train in a gymnasium in their home province of Bohol. She then developed a hobby of lifting barbells.[4] She was also influenced to take up the sport at 9 years old by her father, who also competed as a powerlifter in his youth. She also attended the Bohol Institute of Technology in Tagbilaran for her secondary education.[5]

At a young age, she joined the Philippine Sports Commission-organized 2014 Batang Pinoy which was hosted in Bacolod, where she won a gold medal in the -32kg category.[4]

Sarno went on to represent the Philippines in international competitions, joining weightlifting competitions in Indonesia in 2015, and in Thailand in 2018.[5] At the 2019 Asian Youth and Junior Championships in North Korea, she clinched two golds (overall and snatch) and one silver (clean and jerk) in the 71-kg division.[6] She also joined the 2020 IWF Online World Youth Championship hosted by Peru where she won three gold medals (snatch, clean and jerk, and overall) in the 71-kg division.[7]

At the 2020 Asian Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which was delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sarno clinched the gold medal in the -71kg category, and also won two small medals; a gold for the clean and jerk and a silver for the snatch. After the tournament, she has been touted by local sports officials as a "successor" of Olympian Hidilyn Diaz and is seen as one of the Filipino contenders to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.[8] Although the national weightlifting federation, the Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas, began lobbying for Sarno's entry to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo as a wild card.[3][9]