TO make sure that he makes it to the 2018 Winter Olympics, figure skater Michael Martinez has come up with something new.
The 20-year-old Martinez is having a new program, a new pair of skates and will do a new set of jumps this time around.
“Just happy to be back. I’m a bit tired. It was really a tough competition,” said Martinez on Thursday after getting back from a qualifying event—the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea, where he finished 24th.
Martinez, who was erroneously reported to have qualified for the Winter Olympics, still missed the final cut after several countries in the Top 10 earned three slots to the Olympics.
Martinez talked about his preparations during an exhibition show at the SM Mall of Asia Ice Skating Rink.He will be trying his luck again by joining and competing in the Nebelbhorn Trophy meet in Germany this September.
The quad jumps, which calls for a figure skater to do four revolutions during a jump, is something Martinez has difficulty executing.
This time around, Martinez said he will be ready to do this.
“My body was not ready for this (quad jumps) during the competition. So it was really tough,” said Martinez.
He said his mindset now is to have a quality performance.
To get ready for the meet, he had readied a new program that incorporates a lot of quad jumps.
His new 3-minute routine is now called the “Carmina Fortuna,” to the tune of Carmina Vuran.