‘A time for us’

As he glided, spun and enthralled a multitude Thursday night to the tune of A Time for Us, Michael Christian Martinez was not just proclaiming that his time on the icy world stage had come  he was proclaiming that the Filipino’s time to shock and awe the world had come.

Though he didn’t bring home a medal after the figure-skating finals in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia last Friday, Martinez has already made history for the Philippines by being the first Filipino to qualify for the Winter Olympics. He is also the first Southeast Asian to have competed in figure skating in the Winter Olympics.

A feat, not just because the Philippines is a Third World country, a typhoon-frequented nation where there are other needs begging for attention, but also because all ice in the country is artificial. Ice skating rinks are in malls, created more for recreation rather than sports training.  (Thank God for the vision of tycoon Henry Sy, who thought out of the box.) Ice-skating is not part of the P.E. curriculum in schools.

But when you are faithful to your dream, when your dream glides from your mind to your muscles, then you up your chances of making your dream come true. You can ice-skate your way to fame, fortune and recognition even if you grew up with ice candy, not ice skating.

Martinez has shown with his tenacity that yes, a snowflake has a chance in hell.

“It’s his drive,” my husband Ed said in admiration.

STAR columnist Bill Velasco said Michael has been injured at least four times on record, but has managed to recover very well.

Citing the website of the XXII Winter Olympic Games, Velasco said Martinez was cut in the thigh by a skate blade in 2009, tore two ligaments in his ankle in 2011, tore the medial collateral ligament in his knee in 2012, and fractured his ankle last year.

“All in all, those injuries set him back a year. And yet, there he is in Sochi,” Velasco wrote.

Last Thursday night, proud Filipinos saw the gangly 17-year-old deliver a dazzling performance that sent him into the final round of the men’s figure skating competition at the Iceberg Skating Palace.

Performing to the tune A Time for Us from the movie Romeo and Juliet, Martinez “passionately executed his routine in the short program and impressed with his musicality, flexibility and mostly clean spins to earn 64.81 points,” according to a STAR report by Chiara Mapa.

Martinez was sure he would prevail, according to an AP dispatch. “The gangly kid with the mop of black hair had to, because this has been his life ever since she walked by the rink in the Manila mall at the age of 9, saw the skaters, and declared to his mother that this was something he wanted to do.

“He fell on his behind that day, but that didn’t stop him from coming back the next. Neither did the asthma that put him in the hospital many times and kept him from playing sports outdoors.”

According to the AP report, Martinez’s home had already been mortgaged to pay for his skating.

“We’re hoping he makes it and some companies support him,” his mother, Maria Teresa Martinez, was quoted as saying. “Otherwise he will just have to stop. We cannot afford it anymore. It’s just so expensive and we can’t do another four years.”

His score was good for 19th overall out of 30. His performance last Friday so impressed tycoon Manny Pangilinan that he gave a $10,000-bonus to Martinez.

“What a brave kid, gave it all tonight. Thank you to him and his parents. Let’s continue supporting him,” Pangilinan told ABS-CBN.

On Facebook Thursday and Friday night, Martinez’s proud compatriots were describing how driven they were to warm tears by Martinez’s performance on ice. It set one’s nationalism on fire. Virtually all my FB friends who were still awake and tuned in to Martinez’s bravura on ice were posting by the second, nationalism keeping them wide awake. After Martinez’s dazzling performance, a lot of them posted, “We can sleep now...”

The fire in Martinez’s belly saw him through the ice. Hope it sees him all the way to South Korea in 2018.

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BBC’s Rico Hizon shared with us lately how proud he feels to be a Filipino at this point in time when the Philippines is back on the radar of world business. He wasn’t just referring to credit upgrades, but also to investment opportunities in the country.

For the last six years, Filipinas have been within a bobby pin of the Miss Universe crown, and last year, it had the Miss World and the Miss International crowns resting on the tresses of two Filipinas, namely Megan Young and Bea Rose Santiago.

Boxing champ Manny Pacquiao acquitted himself in his latest bout in Macau.

Ice skaters, American Idol finalists, beauty queens and pugilists may not be those you expect to put us on the map the way you would expect statesmen to at the UN General Assembly. But beauty queens, boxers and other athletes train the spotlight on what is sterling about the Filipino — the drive to succeed, against all odds.

It’s “a time for us,” Filipinos. Let’s not waste it.

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].)