by Tatjana Flade
Although the Philippines is not a natural skating country, they have a naturally talented figure skater that began turning heads last season: Michael Christian Martinez.
More
Martinez puts the Philippines on the map for figure skating
by Tatjana Flade
Although the Philippines is not a natural skating country, they have a naturally talented figure skater that began turning heads last season: Michael Christian Martinez.
More
What a great story, Paula!
It does bring up the which came first, chicken or egg problem.
Michael Christian is really the first outstanding native Philippines skater, as the article says. Does having all those "fly in, compete, fly back to other home countries" skaters at Philippine Nationals inspire young skaters, or does it slow their international progress, and discourage kids living in the Philippines from ever becoming serious skaters?
I would so like to be able to ask him whether it helped or hurt?
That is a very good result from a skater from a country where you can count the number of ice rinks in one handOriginally Posted by gsk8
That's a very good article!
Training back home must be very difficult for him. MoA's rink, although Olympic-sized, is very crowded. Same goes for the smaller rinks. To make it this far despite the difficulties and lack of support shows how talented and dedicated he is. I admire his mom even more. It's very, very difficult to support an athlete for a sport like this and even more if you're a single parent. I hope he gets more support from now on and that he does well in his future competitions. Will be rooting for him!
OMG. I am very excited on the prospects of the Philippines in figure skating. With Caluza, Martinez and Samantha Cabiles (finally transferring to the Philippines), I will definitely root for my kababayans (countrymen) this years.
And I agree with roma. The rink at MoA is a difficult place to practice on. It's more link a rink for recreational purposes than for training. Whatever happened to the rink at SM Megamall? O_o
Sochi has just gotten more interesting. ^_^
Thanks for this article!!! What a struggle he, and his mom, have confronted! He seems so poised, dedicated, and mature for such a young person. Congrats on all of his achievements thus far and wishing him, many, many more including representing Philippines in Sochi!!
I really should pay more attention to the junior circuit. I would love to root for a countryman in Sochi!
And yes, that rink in the Mall of Asia is bad. I don't skate there that often because it's far and there's always too many people
The Megamall rink was taken out and it's now an atrium area for small events like Santa's village type things. AFAIK, MoA is the only SM rink left
It's always so exciting to contemplate a new country entering the skating powers. Remember how about ten years ago, the thought of a Korean skater breaking the top ten seemed farfetched?
As for the climate issue, that could be surmounted if skating becomes economically viable enough to devote the electrical power to a good-sized rink.. Look at the U.S., where for many years one center of skating has been California--not known for its long winters.
I know. So proud of the up and coming Filipinos.
From Michael Martinez, Christopher Caluza and Meliisa Bulanghagui!
Remember we also have two pairs next year: Carli Powers/David Powers, and Khloe Bautista/Tyler Harris.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks