MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Olympian figure skater Michael Christian Martinez returned to the country, not with a medal, but with overflowing pride as he achieved the feat of competing twice in the Winter Olympics. 

Everyone thought that Martinez would hang up his skates for good when he failed to gain his Olympic ticket in the Nebelhorn Trophy competition. He shifted to bodybuilding and was trying “to live a normal life.”

“After the qualifying round, I switched to bodybuilding so I had no idea. I was setting my life up like getting a job – basically a normal life,” said Martinez.

 The Muntinlupa native was in Los Angeles, California, when he discovered that he will be competing in the Winter Olympics, which only gave him 16 days to prepare and practice for the men’s short program.

It would normally take two to 3 months for an Olympic figure skater to perfect the triple jump aspect and Martinez had to lose 7 kilograms by crash dieting, but the Olympic figure skater was proud that he came out with a clean performance of Vanessa Mae’s Emerald Tiger. (READ: Michael Christian Martinez: Olympian and pioneer in Philippine figure skating)

“I was polishing everything. I was practicing really hard, more hours, trying to get my jumps back. Usually it takes two to 3 months for a skater to get back the triple jump but it took me two and a half weeks to perform really good,” said Martinez. 

The 21-year-old was confident with his Emerald Tiger routine as he designed it with pure passion to fulfill his dream of skating to a river dance and tribal-themed program. 

“I always love this piece I always wanted to do something tribal, something river dance.  I’ve always wanted to skate to something like that. I really love this program I put out my heart into it,” said Martinez.

“I feel that it’s my style, it’s my body type, everything, I wanted to do it and [a US figure skater] inspired me to do it.” 

The two-time Olympian was thrilled to be part of the quadrennial event once again, but once he stepped into the rink and warmed up with his competitiors, he felt a rush of mixed emotions of happiness and frustration. 

“At the first practice I felt very happy [honestly], but at the same time I felt sad because I know [that] I was practicing side by side with all the top skaters here and being out there and seeing them do the things that I’m able to do [easily] before, I wasn’t able to do it in my practices,” lamented Martinez. 

Martinez ended his Winter Olympics campaign with a score of 55.56, recording 26.04 points in the technical elements and 29.52 points for the presentation with zero deductions. He failed to advance to the free skate round after finishing 28th out of 30 participants. 

Despite falling to the bottom 3 of the competition, his two-and-a-half-week effort earned him praise from his other competitors, including gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu from Japan, who has heard of Martinez’ late qualification to the Olympic games. 

“Yuzuru Hanyu, the two-time Olympic champion now, was actually very very happy to see me back on the ice because he heard about me that I wasn’t able to skate. That made me like ‘whoa’,” exclaimed Martinez. 

The Muntinlupa native will now take a short break from the ice before planning out his next stint with coach Slava Zagor. Martinez still has yet to achieve the challenge he set up for himself: land a perfect quad. 

“After I take a break, when I get back on the ice, I will just take it from there. It’s one of my goals. I just don’t want to end it without just doing my quads.” – Rappler.com