At a young age of 17, Julian Macaraeg already owns a piece of history.

Macaraeg is the first Filipino to participate in the Winter Youth Olympics and the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships.

Now, Macaraeg yearns to become only the eighth Filipino and the first short track speed skater to reach the Winter Olympics as he set his sights on the Beijing Games in 2022.

“Competing in the Olympics has been my dream since 2010,” he said.

“This coming season is Olympic qualifications and I’m training really hard right now to get a quota spot for the Philippines.”

Macaraeg, who is based in New York, put his plan in motion by taking part in the world championships in Dordrecht, Netherlands earlier this March.

Debuting in the senior level and seeing action in his first tournament in more than a year, though, he proved to still have a long way to go.

One of the youngest in the Worlds, Macaraeg finished last in all of his qualifying heats in the 500m, 1000m, and 1500m distances.

He started strong in both his 500m and 1000m heats – even taking an early lead in the 500m event – but slipped midway through the races and settled for last-place finishes.

Macaraeg, however, bounced back in the final ranking heats by topping both his 500m and 1500m races.

“It feels really good to be racing with the best skaters in the world. Being a rookie, it is my job to learn from the best in order to improve,” he said.

“Every time I compete with them, I learn something new which I can use in future competitions. There is always room for improvement.”

Macaraeg ended the tournament at 35th place out of 44 skaters in the 1500m distance and at 39th place out of 44 skaters in the 500m event.

He did not finish his 1000m final ranking race after sustaining a sprain.

Despite bowing out of contention early, Macaraeg feels the lessons he picked up from his first senior tournament will be beneficial as he marches toward his goal of representing the Philippines in the Olympics.

“After watching and competing side-by-side with [the best in the world], I was able to learn more strategies and techniques that I can apply to my next competition,” Macaraeg said.

“Overall, I had a good taste of what racing in the world champs were like, and hopefully, my next one will be much better.” – Rappler.com