Michael Christian Martinez, Filipino: National Pride, Global Phenomenon (child photos here)

    The first Southeast Asian figure skater in the Olympics …

    The most talked about athlete on skates worldwide in the web this year …      

   Filipino Michael Christian Martinez, born and bred in humid Manila, ice-skated as a child at the crowded SM mall.   

       On a Christmassy cloudy afternoon at the SM Mall of Asia about five years ago — according to the digits in my camera – while waiting for a friend who was late, the crowds started to fill the place with last-minute Christmas shopping. To avoid being pushed and jostled by the mindless throng, i hewed near the railing, my hands tapping the steel bars to the beat of the cheesy, disco-version of  Christmas carols blaring from everywhere.  i looked down the sea of helmeted children on the ice skating rink —  

      there was a thin bullet-sized figure zipping thru rows and rows of  crawling tweeners.

    Then he shot into the air! Then spinned thrice;  landed on one foot and glided for a few moments.

     Then he bolted into the air again! Twirled in space multiple times then… landed like the god Mercury —

    only to hurtle again in the atmosphere to whirl and whirl —

     it was like watching a human electron pirouette and slice against gravity,  a jampacked platform, unbelievable odds.

     so spectacular was the sight that I photographed it and posted it in my blog five years ago (photos below).

     I am singularly fortunate to have witnessed a planetary phenomenon,  now called Michael Christian Martinez — Filipino.

All photos of Michael Christian Martinez (see video above in the next post) as a child skating at the SM Mall of Asia (in green shirt) by marichulambino; his photos at the Olympics by Getty Images. The 2009 published photos were shot in December, 2008 and posted as a slide show in slide.com and embedded in this blog under the title: “HAPPY 2009! Only for the Brave and the Undaunted”at: https://marichulambino.com/2009/01/01/happy-2009-only-for-the-brave-and-the-undaunted/

with the slide.com code: slideshow id=648518346380004029&w=600&h=475 …  the portal slide.com closed down three years ago and all audiovisual production posted there are now gone (never returned); fortunately i have the original jpegs in my file and  also posted a couple of them at the same time in the other blog (chattel.wordpress.com) at http://chattel.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/happy-new-year/