Filipino-American Peter Groseclose will represent the Philippines in the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games in South Korea.
The announcement was relayed by the International Skating Union to Nikki Cheng, president of the Philippine Skating Union on Wednesday, more than a week after Groseclose participated in the World Juniors Championships in Dresden, Germany.
The 15-year-old Groseclose qualified in three events, namely the 500-meter short tracks speed skating, where he finished 32nd out of 68 participants from all over the globe; 100 meters, where he finished 35th out of 67 bets and in the 1500 meters, where he placed 43rd out of 63 competitors.
“We’re proud of Peter because at 15, he’s one of the youngest participants and he beat some older competitors. So we think, in the Olympics (World Youth), he can fare better,” said Cheng in an interview with the Manila Standard.
Cheng was alluding to the quirky qualifying system, where countries can send their best seniors to get two slots for their team, then they are allowed to send young players to take the slots.
“Anything can happen. They say in basketball, bilog ang bola. On the ice, we call it ‘madulas ang yelo’. There are uncertainties that could happen in favor or against any athlete,” Cheng added.
The Washington-based Groseclose prepared hard for the Juniors’ Qualifying event as he competed in three Seniors’ tournaments last year –first in the World Cup 1 in Canada, World Cup 2 in Utah, and the Four Continents Cup, also in Utah, where he listed a new national record in the 1,000-meters’ event.
This will be the third time that the Philippines, a tropical country, is able to qualify an athlete the world winter games for junior athletes. The first was figure skater Michael Martinez in 2012 and the second was Julian Macaraeg in 2020, also in the short track event.