MANILA, Philippines – Competing in a sport that requires her to travel abroad often, Margielyn Didal realized she needs to make some adjustments.

The Filipino skateboarding star learned, quite the hard way, that she particularly needs to fuel herself with rice to perform at the top level. 

In the Philippine Olympic Committee’s (POC) recent webinar on athletes’ weight management, Didal revealed she brings a portable rice cooker wherever she goes because of her bad experience in the US.

In 2017, Didal suffered from stomach cramps because her first ever skateboarding camp did not serve rice. 

“Funny story because in 2017, they sent me to the US for the first time ever because I got a scholarship for 3 weeks to a month in Woodward camp. They didn’t have rice and after a one-week stay, I was in the emergency room for 9 hours because of stomach cramps,” shared Didal.

“I was skating the whole day and there was no rice. They had pasta pero kanin talaga katawan ko (but my body is really used to rice).” 

The 2018 Asian Games street skate gold medalist shared that she eats 3 cups of rice per meal, and is lucky that her sport does not require her to maintain a certain weight. 

“Parang 12 o’clock to 11 o’clock [portion ng] kanin ko (I eat a huge portion of rice),” quipped the Cebuana skater. 

But the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games double gold medalist admitted she has become more conscious in making smart food choices ever since she became a national athlete who is in the running for a Tokyo Olympics berth. 

“As a national athlete, there will be coaches who will ask: ‘Margie, what have you been eating?’ then I’ll try my best to eat less rice and more veggies,” said Didal. 

Since the start of the lockdown in March, Didal has been back in Cebu and continues to adjust to a home routine with her family. 

Normally, the country’s top skateboarder will be training abroad for one to two months, and will only stay at home for a maximum of 5 days. But with Cebu still on enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), Didal has been helping out and spending more time with her family. 

“It was hard for me [to adjust], ‘yung routine kasi iba dito sa Cebu. Ginigising na lang ako ni mama sa breakfast na kakain na then take turns kami dito sa bahay magluto. ‘Yung dad ko mahilig sa gulay na may sabaw so iyon talaga ‘yung dinner. Tapos nagluluto din kami ng humba,” said Didal. 

(It was hard for me to adjust because the routine is different here in Cebu. My mom would wake me up for breakfast and then we would take turns to cook at home. My dad also loves eating vegetables with soup, so that would be for dinner and we also cook slow-cooked pork belly.) 

Didal is in the running for a Tokyo Olympics berth as she ranks No. 14 in the world in the street skateboarding event. 

Landing in the top 16 world rankings is one of the pathways to an outright Olympic berth, which virtually qualifies Didal to the global sports showpiece if she holds on to the spot. – Rappler.com