My First and Last Speed Skating Photo of 2020

Looking back, 10 months ago this photo was taken, Sunday morning of January 19, 2020, My First short track speed skating training photo of 2020. That time, I was ready to get back on track and accept what happened in the past and move forward. But 3 days later, My Dad passed away.

I remembered not long ago, My family used to take me to skating to train from figure skating days to the time I switched to short track speed skating. It's either my Brother or my Dad drives me to the rink along with my Mom. That's how supportive my family was with my sport, and I am very grateful. It even opened a lot of opportunities which made me decide that I want to reach a certain goal.

Back in 2014, the time wherein Michael Christian Martinez qualified to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics, everyone was getting into figure skating and the skating rink was always packed and a lot of enrollees came in to learn how to skate. At that time, I am skating for about 4 years already, I started around February of 2010. I competed again in the US for figure skating for the last time at July 2014 then I started to focus more on my studies since every time I go abroad to compete, it usually takes 1 month of my academic year and I couldn't focus. My teachers even made special exams for me (one with an extra page and a page that is harder), they make you take special exams when you missed it.

That's not the part that I want to dig dipper and talk about. But the time wherein I saw a big billboard of Michael Martinez along EDSA, he's being congratulated for being the first Filipino to qualify in the Winter Olympics, it was from TV5, and so I thought I guess it's not too late to be an Olympian I guess... as I was staring at the huge billboard imagining myself at the Olympics and being interviewed about my journey. 

I stopped skating for a year and came back around 2016 to try a new ice sport which is short track speed skating, that time it was such an alien sport in our country and only 1 Filipino does speed skating and that is Ate Kat, Kathryn Magno. Then that was the start of my short track speed skating journey, slowly we developed our small team that grew. 

Eventually, I started competing again this time in short track speed skating, the difference is every competition it's usually being held abroad, most of the time I fly by myself but my family are still very supportive even if they're not with me physically, because it's also quite expensive to compete abroad since every athlete pays for everything too.

Interviews came in and I was quite overwhelmed that time, I would also want to talk about it on a different blog post. but for a brief story telling about it, it was fun yet it's scary because you have to say the right words they expect you to say and should of course not forget to thank the people who are behind it.

Anyhow, it felt like an endless journey and at some point I feel all the burn out most of the time and decided to quit. But then I have my family whose always there for me and my Dad whom up until my last training was still with me and told the nervous me whose attending her first training of 2020/ comeback to not be afraid of going back, he compared it to driving a car, even if you have stopped driving for a period of time, when you hold the wheels again, knowing how to use it or maneuver it is still with you and be forgotten.

Few days later, he passed away and I didn't have the courage to go back ever since... I have to take time to grieve from my past experience again and  now that my #1 supporter is gone. I just couldn't handle it since I somewhat still blame my sport for taking a month of my life to train abroad for nothing and left me broken by removing me from the line up. Last January 2020, was supposed to be the time I'm getting up once again but fell all over again. Since then, I haven't been to the mall where the skating rink I used to train is at and I don't know if I'd even want to go there because of how scarred I felt.

This was my last speed skating photo of 2020