First PH Olympian figure skater announces return to competition
Michael Christian Martinez, the country’s first Olympian figure skater, announced on Monday night that he is returning to active competition.
“Anyway… I’m competing again. Good luck, knees,” Martinez said in a Facebook post.
The 29-year-old Martinez said he will take part in the 2026 Philippine National Figure Skating Championships and hoped to return to international competition next year.
“Honestly, I never thought I’d be making this announcement again. It’s been years since I last competed, and since then, life has changed a lot. I’ve been able to do other things, focus more on coaching, and help younger skaters with their own competitive journey,” he wrote.
“But one thing I kept getting asked over the years was, When are you competing again? or Are you ever coming back? And my answer was always… probably not. But somehow people kept asking, and I guess a part of me also started wondering… why not? So after a lot of thinking and a lot of convincing (and by a lot, I really mean A LOT), I finally said yes. I’m competing again,” Martinez added.
Martinez said he wanted to keep things simple and not try to recreate his days at the Olympics.
“This time, I really just want to enjoy competing again. No big expectations, no unnecessary pressure. I’m also keeping things simple. Not trying to recreate my Olympic days. Just training, skating, competing, and hopefully having fun doing it again… Of course, I still have a few personal goals I want to accomplish. But we’ll get to those eventually. For now, I’m just happy to be back,” the two-time Olympian wrote.
“I honestly don’t know how far this comeback will go, and maybe that’s what makes it exciting. One competition at a time. Let’s just see what happens. See you at Nationals,” he said.
Martinez represented the Philippines in men’s figure skating at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and also in the 2018 games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Following his Olympic stints, he has since become a content creator under the name MZ Viral.
He suffered multiple injuries, hampering his training.
