Michael Martinez Ends His Stint In Winter Olympics 2018

Photo: Inquirer

Michael Christian Martinez, a Filipino skater bows out in Winter Olympics 2018 preliminaries. He failed to reach the Top 24 in the Men's Figure Skating Competition held in Pyeongchang, South Korea today. This was really disappointing because I wanted to see him skate in the finals but I'm still proud because he did well. Philippines is a tropical country. We don't have winter season here. No snow. So for Michael Martinez to do this kind of sport is really amazing.

The 2-time Olympian fell in 28th place with a low score of 55.56 points even though his performance wasn't a bad one. This event was a short notice for him. He didn't prepare that much considering that he wasn't supposed to be a part of the Winter Olympics 2018. I'm not sure but a skater from another country pulled out before the start of the Winter Olympics. Last January 23, Michael Martinez received a call that he will be taking the open spot meant for someone else. This gave him a short amount of time to practice his routine and learn to do the jumps again. And the funny thing about this is that Michael Martinez is actually planning to retire and focus on body building instead. He didn't practice figure skating for months, I believe. This is the reason why he suddenly bulked up. He weighs around 75 kg before he received the call. He began crash dieting to try reaching his usual skating weight of 66 kg in short amount of time. I'm not sure if he reached that goal because he still looked a bit bulked up while skating in the preliminaries.

Photo: Lionheart TV

He entered the Pyeongchang Games ranked No. 44 in the world.

But still, we're proud of him. Whether he chooses to stay in Figure Skating or change to body building, it's all up to him. Hopefully, we will be able to see him do well in another competition even if it's a different one.

JOB WELL DONE, MICHAEL!