Feb. 1 TET Mass, Holy Family
Parish, Pass Christian, 10 am
Feb. 2 Installation Mass, Fr. Henry
McInerney, Our Lady of
Fatima, Biloxi, 11:30 am
Feb. 4 Foundation Board Meeting,
3 pm
Feb. 5-6 Ordination and Installation
of Bishop Joseph Kopacz,
Diocese of Jackson
Feb. 8 Installation Mass, Fr. Mark
Ropel, St. Thomas Aquinas,
Hattiesburg, 5:30 pm
Feb. 9 Mass, Nativity BVM
Cathedral, 11 am
Feb. 10 90th Anniversary Dinner,
Notre Dame Seminary, New
Orleans, 6 pm
Feb. 13 Presbyteral Council Meeting,
2 pm
Filipino figure skater who canʼt always afford
coach turns to prayer
By Simone Orendain
Catholic News Service
MANILA, Philippines (CNS) -- In the
lobby of a luxury hotel, Michael Christian
Martinez balanced on one leg and swung the
other forward. The lanky 17-year-old was on
the ball of his foot and looked like he was
about to spring upward into the air.
“I've been in therapy for almost three
weeks,” said Martinez. “Iʼm having this feel-
ing like I need to go. It feels like Iʼm getting
crazy like when Iʼm not in the ice because
Iʼve been there and my life (has been) in the
ice for so long.”
Less than two months before the Winter
Olympics, Martinez was off the ice, being
treated for an inflamed knee. He told
Catho-
lic News Service
it was one of many injuries
likely caused by skating on the rough ice in
the Philippines.
Martinez, ranked fifth in the World Ju-
nior Figure Skating Championships, will be
the first skater ever to represent the Philip-
pines in the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia,
in February.
In eight short years, the shy kid from a
Manila suburb made a life for himself on the
ice, where he said he feels like he has “super
powers,” despite some significant challeng-
es. The most obvious challenge: being from
a tropical country that has only two skating
rinks, without competition-grade ice or com-
petition-level training.
Martinez has asthma, which kept him in-
doors and away from sports for practically
all of his childhood until he discovered ice
Philippine
figure
skater
Michael
Christian Martinez performs in the
2013 Nebelhorn Trophy competition in
Oberstdorf, Germany. Martinez, ranked
fifth in the World Junior Figure Skating
Championships, will be the first skater to
represent the Philippines in the Winter
Games in Sochi, Russia, in February.
CNS
photo/Robin Ritoss
skating at a shopping mall. He pushed hard
for a maintenance regiment when his doc-
tor initially advised against it. But the big-
gest hurdle has been scarce funds to pay for a
coach at competition time.
Martinez said he regularly feels intense
pressure before a competition, not because
he has to impress judges, but “because of
lack of training, lack of a coach. The jumps
make me really nervous because theyʼre not
consistent.”
“Before there was no one to hold on to,
only my mom but no one else,” said Marti-
nez, a Catholic. “So Iʼm holding on to God.
Every competition I ask him for help and
confidence and it really works!”
He and his mother, Maria Teresa Marti-
nez, were convinced prayer helped him win
his first senior-level gold medal at the Crystal
Skate competition in Romania in 2012. Mar-
tinez followed that up with a bronze at the
seniorsʼ New Years Cup in Slovakia in 2013.
Teresa Martinez told
CNS
: “I just tell him
to prepare and pray, because sometimes re-
ally we cannot afford to bring the coach. ... I
know some skating skills, some techniques,
but Iʼm not as good as, you know, the real
coaches. So I told him just pray.
“Every competition itʼs ‘Mom did you
bring my Baby Jesus? Mom did you bring
my Mama Mary? Mom did you bring your
rosary?ʼ”
She said each competition takes 10 days
of travel and lodging for her son, herself and
a coach. Because of the steep costs, which
she said can run at least $10,000 each time he
enters, Martinez sometimes goes before the
judges without the trained eyes of an expert
to give him tips and assessments between the
short program and the longer free skate.
“Last time I brought him, he was first
place in the short program,” she said. “I
couldnʼt help him much and he dropped
to fifth place after the free skate. ... He has
missed a lot of opportunities of being on
the podium because we couldn't bring any
coach.”
Martinez started training competitively
five years ago, going to California for brief
stints during the year. In 2010, he caught the
eye of Ilia Kulik, 1998 Olympic gold med-
alist from Russia, who his mother said tore
down what her son had previously learned
about jumps and other technical feats. With
the help of Kulik, Martinez landed a flaw-
less triple jump after three months of intense
training.
Martinez also learns from John Nicks, a
veteran trainer whose list of students include
Olympic gold medalists Peggy Fleming,
Kristi Yamaguchi and dozens of national and
world champions.
See filipino skater, page 7
Gulf Pine Catholic
•
January 31, 2014
3
Gulf
Pine
Catholic
(ISSN No. 0746-3804)
January 31, 2014
Volume 31, Issue 11
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