Manila Ice: Filipino Teen Making History in Sochi
FEB 14, 2014
SOCHI, Russia — Michael Martinez nailed the bow at the end.Four bows, to be exact, though no one could blame him. He didn't seem to want to leave the ice Thursday night, and no one was going to blame him for that, either.This wasn't the shopping mall in the Philippines, where he learned his jumps and spins while trying to avoid parents and their kids skating by on family outings. This was the Iceberg Skating Palace and this was the Olympics, where the teenager was desperate for the skate of his young life.He had less than three minutes to prove himself in the short program and make it to the men's free skate final.If he didn't, he might have to be thinking about the next step, perhaps working for his family raising vegetables to sell to Japan.The expenses had become too much. The mall had contributed some money, but in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan there wasn't much the government could do for a figure skater, the nation's only competitor in Sochi.The family home had already been mortgaged to pay for his skating. There was no more to give.
"We're hoping he makes it and some companies support him," his mother, Maria Teresa Martinez, said. "Otherwise he will just have to stop. We cannot afford it anymore. It's just so expensive and we can't do another four years."In a sequined and braided black and white outfit donated by a designer in New York who saw his Facebook plea for proper Olympic attire, Martinez took the biggest stage of his life, skating just two spots before the great Evgeni Plushenko was supposed to go in front of a capacity crowd at the Olympic arena.He acknowledged the polite applause, gliding to the center of the ice. He paused, struck a pose, and then began the most important skate of his career."I was so nervous," he said. "This was such a big event."He had reason to be. At 17, he is the youngest skater in the program and the only Filipino figure skater ever in the Olympics.
